8 
BY THE 
Bird3 iu an Iowa Park 
Uy Emerson Stoner, Des Moines, Iowa 
My business calls me daily to one of 
the largest parks in the city and be¬ 
ing on the grounds at present and hav¬ 
ing a tew moments of leisure I take 
pleasure in writing down what birds 
1 have found there. 
A robin, not far off, is calling for 
the first place to which lie is justly en¬ 
titled as he is probably the best known 
of all our birds. A number of blue 
jays are flying from tree to tree, loudly 
uttering their “jay-jay” with occa¬ 
sionally a pumping note which 1 have 
heard a young boy translate as “Mc¬ 
Kinley,” he knowing them as the “Me¬ 
lvin ley birds.” 
A rose-breasted grosbeak and a Bal¬ 
timore oriole pause only for a short 
song as they are both busily searching 
food for their young ones. At some 
distance 1 hear a flock of gra dsles 
which s know are nesting in some 
evergreens farther east. The brown 
thrasher and catbird are common sing- 
tis later on in the day and the cuckoo 
(although his song is usually described 
as course and gutteral I love to hear 
it) is not so rare as he wishes to ap¬ 
pear. 
Down by the lake there is a pair of 
kingfishers and probably a few swal¬ 
lows are skimming over the water. 
Under the roof of a barn a phoebe has 
a nest and in an out-house, a house 
wren is rearing eight young. 
Although I have not noted any of 
them today the following birds are also 
common inside of the park,_mourn¬ 
ing doves, redheaded woodpeckers, 
flickers, crows, cowbirds, bluebirds 
(they are not so common this year), 
nieadow larks, towhees, field sparrows, 
WAYSIDE 
and occasionally I see a ruby-throated 
hummingbird hovering among the 
flower beds. Twice this season I have 
noted a scarlet tanager, but a person 
is really fortunate to observe him. 
Later on will come numberless 
bands of juncos, brown creepers, tree 
sparrows, etc., but we will leave them 
for a winter month. 
(Continued from page .>) 
this is so, for even this remote haven 
has not escaped the plumage hunters. 
In the spring of 1909 a party of them 
butchered thousands of birds most in¬ 
humanly, but luckily their operations 
were interrupted before they had com¬ 
pletely destroyed the rookery. 
For a more complete account of the 
many interesting objects and lessons 
presented by this reservation, we urge 
our readers to read the handsomely il- 
lustrated Bulletin No. 42 of the Bu¬ 
reau of Biological Survey, Washing¬ 
ton, D. C, 
