BIRDS IN A CITY 167 



and of their relatives there remain only the little 

 screech owls and the sparrow hawks. The latter 

 feed chiefly upon English sparrows and hence are 

 worthy of the most careful protection. 



These birds should be encouraged to build near 

 our homes, and if not killed or driven away some- 

 times choose the eaves of our houses as their domi- 

 ciles and thus, by invading the very haunts of the 

 sparrows, they would speedily lessen their num- 

 bers. A brood of five young hawks was recently 

 taken from a nest imder the eaves of a school- 

 house in this city. I immediately took this as a 

 text addressed to the pupils, and the principal 

 5vas surprised to learn that these birds were so 

 valuable. In the Park the sparrow hawks nest in 

 a hoUow tree, as do the screech owls. 



Other most valuable birds which nest in the 

 Park are the black-billed and yellow-billed 

 cuckoos, whose depredations among the hairy and 

 spiny caterpillars should arouse our gratitude. 

 For these insects are refused by almost all other 

 birds, and were it not for these slim, graceful crea- 

 tures they would increase to prodigious numbers. 

 Their two or three light blue eggs are always laid 

 on the frailest of frail platforms made of a few 

 sticks. The belted kingfisher bores into the bank 

 of the river and rears his family of six or eight in 

 the dark, ill-odoured chamber at the end. Young 

 cuckoos and kingfishers are the quaintest of young 

 birds. Their plumage does not come out a little 



