The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-07-19
Our Song Birds.

Now is the time when the bad boy of
the country is especially active in rang
ing the woods and climbing the trees,
at the imminent risk of his mischiev
Gus head. to rob the birds nests of their
eggs or young, and even to carry off
the nest whole. This vicious habit is
not by any means confined to the chill
dren of the poor and ignorant; on the
contrary the boys who are most de-
structive of bird-life seem to be the
sons of wealthy people, who have
abundant leisure and no useful way to
occupy their time, and pocket money
enough to provide themselves with the
climbing irons of the telegraph re-
pairers, so that scarce u bird of the
forest is coy enough in hiding his nest
to escape danger from these young
rOgues.
The law against this sort of reckless
destruction is dead letter, as long as
it is not put in execution by the public
sentiment of the people. The bad boy
knows perfectly well that there is such
a law, and he knows just as well that
his father takes some pride in his col
lection of eggs and nests, and will de-
fend him if any complaint is made. 1t
is a fact that between the adverse in
tiuences of the vicious boys, the crows,
hawks and squirrels, who are also nest
robbers, and the crowding of our viii
lagos with the worthless English spar
row, our native songsters, such as the
blue bird, the song sparrow, and the
oriole, are not as plenty as they used to
be, and it is great pity and a shame
that this is so. The true lover of the
beauties of nature takes most delight
in their natural ways. To the writer,
a Gagged song bird is an object of pity,
unless, indeed, it be Canary born in
a cage, which knows not the
Joy of the open air, and can not endure
our climate unprotected by man.
The sight of one of our wild song
birds, such as the bobolink, the mock
ing bird, or the oriole, confined behind
wires, is a sorry sight; the poor thing
doesn't feel like singing, and even after
he has given up beating his feathers to
pieces in hopeless attempts to escape,
and philosophically makes the best of
his Imprisonment he never sings with
half the life and Joy that inspires him
or meadows.
When people learn to love these wild
things for their very wildness, and to
admire their wonderful ways of nest
building and caring for their young,
the reckless boy will find his tracks
watched by the police, and his trade in
birds eggs gone for want of customers,
The crow, the hawks, cats, and the red
squirrel, are mischievous nest robbers,
and deserve to be destroyed as does
also the English sparrow, which by
sheer force of numbers, is crowding out
better native birds. Our oriole or
golden robin is, of all our birds, the
most charming in color of his plumage
and richness of his song; he comes with
the bobolink about the 10th of May,
and well deserves to be encouraged for
his constant war upon the insects. as
well as for his great beauty, matchless
song, and wonderful way of hanging
his bag-like nest from the crotch of
some dropping elm Dough. But who
would rob his nest, or cage him? 0, tie,
boys, let him fly! and try to coax him
to build near the house by hanging out
on the bushes plenty of old strings early
in May; he will carry them off and use
them to good purpose.
The blue bird is another harmless
and useful bird, and well worth en-
couraging. He likes to build his nest
in hollow trees, and will kindly accept
an old tin can or other shelter placed
among the trees for his nest.
There are many other birds which
deserve to be encouraged to build near
our farm houses, which should receive
the attention of young people, who will
find far more pleasure in encouraging
them than in destroying them. Use
your hunting propensities against the
common enemies of mantle wood
chuck, skunk, hawk, mink and cat-but
in the name of good sense let alone the
harmless and useful birds.-W D. Phil
6ricb, IN NeaO E1giapd Farmer.