XVI INTRODUCTION. 
‘shade trees along the streets of villages and towns, or even sometimes within large 
cities. A good example of this latter class is the Warbling Vireo, which Nuttall char- 
acterizes as a bird ‘almost confined to our villages and even cities.’ He says that it is 
‘rarely observed in the woods; but from the tall trees which decorate the streets and 
lanes, the almost invisible musician, secured from the enemies of the forest, is heard to 
cheer the house and cottage with his untiring song,’ and that he has heard it singing 
as late as October 2. Its song, says Mr. Thomas Mcllwraith (in ‘Birds of Ontario’), 
‘is soft, subdued, and flowing, like the murmuring of a hidden brook in the leafy month 
of June.’ The beautiful Yellow Warbler is one of our commonest orchard birds; and if 
the Bluebird is the most delightful of our birds, this is the most lovely, with his 
plumage of mellowest gamboge-yellow, streaked with richest chestnut-red on breast and 
sides, and pretty, cheerful song. He is not only beautiful and tuneful, but useful as a 
destroyer of insects infesting fruit trees, which constitute his only food. 
“This list of familiar, attractive, and useful songsters might be greatly extended; 
but enough have been mentioned to show that the United States is not so badly off in 
“the matter of Song Birds as might appear. We have them in abundance, but they are 
treated with indifference—or, what is worse still, snubbed by the perverted sentiment 
which prefers the detestable House Sparrow to the Bluebird, the House Wren or the 
Purple Martin. When that worse than useless foreign vagabond was introduced to this 
country, boxes were immediately put up for his accommodation, and every means taken 
to protect him. Yet, none of our native birds, no matter how useful, beautiful, or 
melodious, was considered worth the trouble. Had the same steps been taken to 
encourage and protect thosé of our native species which are most worthy of such 
attention, there is no question that our towns and villages and city parks would by 
this time have become full of Bluebirds, Wrens, and other attractive and useful birds, 
whose place is now taken by that rank weed among birds, the European Sparrow. 
Successful as has been the introduction of the latter pest, attempts have been made to 
naturalize various European Song Birds, but they have all proven failures, as might 
have been expected had the matter been properly considered. It should be remembered, 
in this connection, that the climate of this country is exceedingly different from that ot 
Europe—especially the British Islands—which is characterized by milder winters and 
cooler surhmers, while our winters are severe and with frequent changes of temperature, 
and our summer heat of tropical intensity. Therefore, few of the resident European 
species could stand ‘the vicissitudes of our climate. Again, birds which in the mild 
climate of England are resident throughout the year would, if brought to this country, 
be forced to migrate or else perish; while migration being but an inherited instinct, 
followed by the predecessors of existing individuals of each species for thousands of 
generations, this instin¢ét serves them to no purpose in a strange country, but, on the 
other hand, is apt to lead them to destruction, since, when the season for migration 
arrives, they are as apt to fly directly out to sea as not, and thus be destroyed. 
“Let us, therefore, instead of continuing to deprecate our supposed scarcity of 
Song Birds and attempting the remedy by futile importations of foreign species, encour- 
age and rigidly protect those which the bounty of nature has provided for us, and of 
which we have every reason to be proud.” 
