Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-12-22
SONGSTERS RETURNING.

Sparrow Into Retirement-Meeting OF
the State Ornithological Association
Performance of the Tuesday Night Club.
THE joyful tidings that the English spar
row is on the down grade were officially an
nounced by one of the speakers at the an
nual meeting OF the State Ornithological AS
sociation, which was held at the Academy of
Science yesterday. number OF new mem
bers and the board of officers for the coming
year were elected, the latter being DR..
Thomas L. Hazard. of Allegheny, Presi-
dent; W. Clyde Todd, Washington, d. c.,
Vice President, and Mr.. Wickham, Of
Beaver Treasurer and Secretary.
After the business routine had been dis
posed of some highly interesting papers wers
read. DR.. Hazards paper dealt with the
bird population of the Allegheny Parks,
and held forth the hope that at no dis
tant day there will be free oon-
certs in Superintendent Hamiltou's
green domain, furnished by melo-
dious feathered songsrers. DR.. Hazard
briefly traced the evolution Of the parks
from alleged pastures which would not
support a solitary COW and where the only
musician was the jocund goat, who grazed
there upon the towns cast-off tin cans. Tho
song birds had found a comfortable home
there till the Park Commissioners in o mis-
guided moment had imported 75 English
sparrows from Philadelphia. This occurred
in 1875, and the Commissioners were so fear
full that the sparrows would be killed by the
cold that they lodged them all winter in the
greenhouses. Coddling killed all but three,
and from these the hordes that infest this
region sprang. But there are signs that the
sparrow as tyrant and bugbear is on the
wane.
Song Birds Coming Back.
ord
nine robins, four orioles, several blue birds
and other song birds. There had been seen
p in the parks, also, during the summer a red
headed woodpecker, downy woodpecker,
flicker, yellow warblers and several other
representative birds of sweet song and
bright plumage. Another encouraging fact
was that Dr. Hazard had counted this fall
in the parks five robins nests in good re-
aged, four orioles nests in good repair and
four not so good, as we'll as IL other nests
build by desirable birds of one sort or
another. This made total of q nests,
whereas two years ago he had been able to
hndDut two SUCH birds nests The sparrow
had undoubtedly done great damage, by
driving out his betters. but it looked as IL
the old birds were plucking up courage and
coming back. The sparrows had not abated
their hostility, but they showed discretion
more than ever in attacking the large birds.
They still pursued the robins in gangs and
tried to make the redbreasts' lives misera-
Bile, but the latter continued to appear year
by year and in larger numbers every season.
The sparrows were getting more shy, and
DR.. Hazard had noticed that after the ex.
plos1ve festival of July not sparrow was
TO be seen upon the streets. The electric
cars and other disturbing influences seemed
to affect the sparrows more than the other
birds. 1t had been observed that some OF
the most timid birds had come into the
large cities, while the English sparrow had
retired to the smaller towns. The other
birds had observed evidently also that the
sparrows would not go up into the tops of
the trees, and in those lofty perches many
birds accustomed to build near the ground
had accordingly set their nests. Such birds
as the gentle retiring wood-thrush were TO
tns s"d
cause or the sparrow'S supremacy had been
the fact that it fed its young ON tender In
sects, and thus used up the food supply of
other birds.
Water Fowl in the Park.
DR.. Hazard then touched upon the water
fowl in the park ponds. The six Canada
geese, who had been hntched by a conhding
domesticated mother in Michigan, still re-
tanned their wild instincts. When the time
1or migrating came they couldn't fly away,
for each year one OF their wings was cut,
but they would start out and walk to the
North or the South, as the case may be, and
often they had been found mile from the
parks. Some of them had been lost in this
way, but now q speoial policeman had been
detailed during the migratory season to re-
strain them. DR.. Hazard also drew q
pathetic picture of the wood duck who had
been left widower-his spouse and four
ducklings having deserted him one 1ne day.
The blue snow goose was well worth going
to see. and DR.. Hazard doubted II any or
the gentlemen present had seen one. With
some other gossipy remarks about the park
birds DIR. Hazard closed his address,
Mr.. Thomas Harper, in tie course OF a
little paper Descriptive OF bird-life as he had
observed it, gave this account OF a war
dance OF turkeys: In a walk upon farm
which was still covered in parIs with heavy
timber flock of turkeys was encountered.
The farmer told Mr.. Harper that the tur-
way. Sure enough, at the call OF a big gob-
bier, the turkeys formed in a body, and wnen
their disturbers were 80 yards away four
gobblers took their places in the center and
the hens rushed around them with wild cries
for several minutes. 1t was just like an In
dian war dance. and Mr.. Harper suggested
that perhaps the redskins had patterned
their motions upon the turkeys
Mr.. Clyde Todd, of the Agricultural De-
partment ut Washington, contributed SOL
entif1c account of the distribution of bird
life in this end of the State. One of the in
were SO numerous in some parts of Clear
field county as to damage crops.
DR.. johnson, the retiring President of the
association, read some delightful field notes
taken on Buffalo creek, in which he de-
scribed a stroll through the fields and
some of the peculIarities of rare bird he
had seen in the woods, the arcadian fly
catcher. With this paper the meeting
closed.
AN ultra-fashionable event was the per-
formance last night of the Tuesday Night
- t., AIn lnh