The Worthington advance., 1896-08-27
SONG BIRDS PLENTIFUL.

SONG BIRDS PLENTIFUL.
Migration This Year H Larger Than for
Several Seasons.
There has been this season an un-
usually large migration of song birds.
Three years ago the cold weather in
kentucky and Tennessee killed nearly
all che robins and the bluebirds, and the
people of the north who watched for
the incoming springtime songsters felt
sad when the April weather failed to
bring the birds to their doorsteps.
In Highland Park, which is just
short distance north of Chicago, there
have been this year 50 many song birds
that people have noticed their presence
and have wondered why they were not
here last year and year before. A Bal
timore oriole, which is q rare bird In
this vicinity, has built nest in an elm
tree in q private yard, and the owner of
the tree says that any small boy who
tries to rob that nest will meet with
reception that is something warmer
than he ever had in school after a bit OF
bad conduct. The scarlet tanager and
the bob-o-links, the song sparrows, the
vesper sparrows, and the meadow larks
are more numerous than they have been
for some time before. The meadow
lark pipes in Winnetka, in Highland
Park, in Lake Bluff, in Fort Sheridan
and all the places that lie in between.
He springs morning carol and the YES
per sparrow sings the suburban resi-
dents to sleep.
Why there should be such a flush"
of birds this year is known only to the
people who make something OF study
Of them. They manage to survive ell
the guns, traps, and telegraph wires
that are laid for them. And they come
out ahead. The fact that they are pro-
life Is one of Gods compensations tor
the fact that mankind wars against
them. It is true that people love the
birds; but it is also true that while
they love their singing and love the
birds as a bit Of the picturesque about
their country homes, they are not will
ing for some unaccountable reason to
20 to court and testify against the boys
and men who wantonly kill the birds
and rob their nests. The whole country
about Chicago has been for two months
q place of song. A man on Dearborn
street the other day was selling bob
o-links, and said to would-be pur-
chaser that he could get for him cana
ries. The man meant that he could trap
the goldfinch, which is one Of the most
beautiful birds that America has, with
it's yellow body, its black wings, its
CHEEKY note, and its undulating Hight"
This bird trapper had been utilizing
the waste fields which are in the limits
of Chicago to spread his bird lime and
to place his snares. It is remarkable
fact that most of these bird trappers are
Germans and Italians. Germany and
Italy are supposed to be utterly with
out song birds on account of the old
civilization of the country and the
spread of the population. But the men
who went out into the Hartz mountains
to capture canaries have given to their
children by heredity the instinct of cap
turing birds.
If every one who has q home that he
can call his own would put box either
on his house top or in tree near his
house, and would use his best endeavor
to get rid of the English sparrow pest,
he would find that the native birds
would not only come to him but would
come to him so gladly and with such
voice that he would feel repaid for the
five cents which it cost him to nail q box
either on his roof or on the shade tree.
The birds have evidently come to stay.
They need little encouragement in the
way of food and in the way Of hospital
ity. Give them that and they will prove
10 be friendly indeed.-Chicago Tri-
bune.