Feb. 24, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
243 
Birds in the Adirondacks. 
Poland, N. Y., Feb. 14.— Editor Forest and 
Stream: Just below our little village is situated 
a natural bird sanctuary, a perfect jungle of a 
place, and one to which man seldom intrudes. 
It consists of a long stretch of sandy soil grown 
up to willows with a few scattering elms and 
basswoods, and all overrun with creeping vines 
of many kinds. Here and there great crowns of 
ferns reach to one’s head, and horsetails and 
various weeds and wild flowers abound. This 
resort is bounded on one side by a little used 
road, on the other by the West Canada Creek, 
and the whole is inter¬ 
sected by little clear 
water brooks, and from 
this last fact the place is 
known to the country 
round as The Islands. At 
the lower end is a small 
spring - fed pond, the 
home of many turtles, 
and a favorite fishing 
ground for the blue and 
green herons and bit¬ 
terns. I recall seeing a 
bittern early last spring 
standing on the ice of a 
small frozen pool in 
these same grounds and 
looking for all the world 
as if he too was frozen, 
for I was permitted to 
approach to within fif¬ 
teen feet before he took 
wing. 
The birds that fre¬ 
quent this retreat include 
about all our summer 
residents, and a great 
many migratory birds stop here both in spring 
and fail. This spot is well protected on the 
north and west by hills, and travelers must find 
this a nice warm place to rest and feed for a 
few days. Last spring I was unable to spend as 
much time here as I should have liked, but even 
so was fortunate enough to find the nests of 
three of our birds which are not always easy 
to discover. They were the veery, rose-breasted 
grosbeak and black-billed cuckoo. The young of 
the grosbeak I was able to photograph just be¬ 
fore they left the nest, but the other nests, much 
to my disappointment, were situated in positions 
to prevent photographing. I was most anxious 
to obtain a picture of the cuckoo’s nest. It con¬ 
tained two young, but I could throw no light 
on it without disturbing the nest, and this bird 
is such a shy, wild one that no liberties can be 
taken with either her or her nest. It was in a 
thorn tree and carefully concea’ed by the leaves 
of a wild grapevine, and only about six feet 
from the ground. This nest consisted of a very 
shallow and rough construction of twigs cush¬ 
ioned with plant down. These nests are made 
so shallow that the eggs must sometimes fall 
out in hard winds. 
While I found but few nests in the summer, 
still almost all our birds nest here, including 
even the elusive woodcock. They nest on dif¬ 
ferent floors so to speak, from the ground up 
to the dead tops. Along the shores and on the 
pebbly banks of the creek the spotted sandpipers 
can be found, and in the spring numbers of 
ducks and shelldrakes pass a few days here. I 
often watch these waterfowl, and of them none 
seem so pretty as the hooded merganser, particu¬ 
larly when consorting with a female and flashing 
his white cockade. His larger relative, the Amer¬ 
ican merganser, is sometimes here in large num¬ 
bers. The first of the land birds to arrive in 
the spring are the blackbirds and grackles, and 
they never fail to advertise their arrival. This 
season the warblers seemed to be very late in 
reaching here. My first record was a yellow 
palm warbler on the 19th of April. Our back¬ 
ward spring probably had some effect on the 
migration; we had snow away in the month of 
April. Ruffed grouse can always be found at 
the lower end of this piece and hawks and owls 
are occasionally seen. 
There are probably many such bird ha' nting 
places as this I describe, only it remains for 
some woods loving wanderer with a hobby for 
birds to find them out, and this particulat spot 
is known and appreciated by only a young friend 
and myself. Charles A. Gianini. 
Starlings with Crows? 
Holyoke, Mass., Feb. 14.- — Editor Forest and 
Stream: Starlings were located here about two 
years ago. I have not seen any in Holyoke, but 
I have seen a large flock in the town north of 
here, in South Hadley and South Ernest. These 
starlings were very friendly to the crows. I 
lived last fall just north of Mt. Holyoke range 
and every morning large flocks of crows flew 
over west and with them flocks of starlings 
mixed in on very friendly terms. Sometimes there 
would be only one crow with a flock of birds in 
the afternoon. They would be coming back all 
mixed together, flying from field to field and 
tree to tree, going back to their roosting places 
on the mountains. I think they must roost to¬ 
gether. They certainly were great friends. 
Ellis L. Dudley. 
[Is there not some error of observation here? 
We have never seen anything like this and the 
association seems unlikely. —Editor.] 
Starling Facts Sought. 
Albany, N. Y., Feb. ly.—Editor Forest and 
Stream: I would be glad to know the truth 
about the starling. Your Washington corres¬ 
pondent last week called it “an extremely im¬ 
portant and attractive bird,’’ and expressed the 
hope that it “will meet with and deserve en¬ 
couragement and pro¬ 
tection.’’ 
The new conservation 
commission in its pro¬ 
posed “uniform’’ law 
puts the ban on the bird 
and lists it among those 
not to be protected in 
New York State. I am 
advised by John B. Burn¬ 
ham, who was one of 
the committee of three 
that drew up the pro¬ 
posed law, that this was 
done at the earnest re¬ 
quest if Mr. Pierson. 
He furthermore says 
that the starling is a bird 
so destructive that it 
ought to be extermi¬ 
nated ; in fact, that it is 
as bad as the English 
sparrow. 
It would be a pity to 
place on the legal black¬ 
list any bird that is not 
absolutely dangerous to 
the general welfare. Our mitive birds are fast 
becoming altogether too few in numbers, and it 
has for a long time seemed to me that the alarm¬ 
ing destruction which threatens our trees may 
be chiefly due to disturbing the balance of nature 
by wantonly killing off the birds. By all means let 
in the light on this subject. John D. Whish. 
[What are the sterling’s habits with respect 
to other birds and to insects in this country? 
They are abundant in the region of which New 
York city is the center, and are spreading stead¬ 
ily, hence studying them will be possible over 
a large area. Eor good and sufficient reasons 
the habits of the bird in England cannot be ap¬ 
plied to starlings reared here. 
As an example of mistakes that may be made, 
there is the so-called “American squirrel." which, 
introduced into En.gland, has been credited with 
acts never or rarely ever practiced by squirrels 
here, such as robbing birds’ nests and devouring 
young and eg.gs. Without doubt this “American 
squirrel" is the red and not the gray squirrel.— 
Editor.] 
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YOUNG rose-breasted GROSBEAKS. 
