THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS. 403 
THE PROTECTION OF BIRDS AGAINST THEIR NATURAL 
ENEMIES, 
Those who are successful in assembling birds about their 
homes are likely soon to find that they have also inadvert- 
ently attracted creatures to prey upon them. When our 
winter colony of birds was at the height of its numbers, in 
January, 1903, it was noticed that the birds were growing 
nervous and easily frightened. Soon one was seen to be 
minus a tail. ‘Then their numbers began to decrease. An 
investigation revealed the cause, —two cats and a Sharp- 
shinned Hawk. One day during my absence the Hawk 
struck a Blue Jay within twenty feet of the window. If we 
expect to conserve our small native land birds and increase 
their numbers, something more becomes necessary than 
protection from the gunner, the small boy, or the milliner’s 
agent; for in woods where all shooting is prohibited the 
enemies of birds, particularly Hawks, squirrels, Crows, and 
Jays, are likely to increase in numbers, while the smaller 
birds decrease. This was the case in the Middlesex Fells 
Reservation, soon after the Metropolitan Park Commission 
took it. Four years’ experience on my own place in protect- 
ing birds from gunners resulted in a very decided increase 
in the numbers of squirrels, Crows, and Jays, and a corre- 
sponding decrease among the smaller birds. Apparently less 
than ten per cent. of the smaller birds raised any young in 
1902. During a long stay on the estate of Mr. William 
Brewster, at Concord, Mass., in the breeding season of 1908, 
it became evident to me that the numbers of the smaller birds 
breeding in his woods had decreased much in the previous 
six years. No shooting had been allowed for several years 
on this estate of nearly three hundred acres. The owner had 
protected the game and birds from destruction by man ; but 
the results, so far as some of the smaller wood birds were con- 
cerned, were disappointing. The Wood Thrushes nearly all 
disappeared. Where there had been five pairs of Redstarts 
breeding a few years before, only one pair was seen in 1903, 
and they disappeared later. Comparatively few birds were 
able to rear their broods that year, except the Robins and 
