The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1904-09-03

Suburban birds seem to acquire a
general fondness for human society.
Suburban woodlands are not so
silent and devoid of bird life as the
Adirondack woodlands sometimes
seem to be, but the orchards and
shThbbery of suburban homesteads
are far richer in birds than neighbor
ING woodlands. In fact, the birds
seem to regard the woodlands as a
sort of retreat to be held in reserve
IN case of need.
For reasons of their own many
kinds of birds prefer to build their
nests elsewhere than in the wood
lands. Robins, ,catbirds, wood thrushes
plainly prefer the close neigh
borhood of man to the wild Liberties
of the woodland Even the shy
veery sometimes builds in the
grounds Of suburban homesteads,
tI8hg1 it usually prefers the woods
laad.
t is possible that the birds find
tina they have fewer enemies close
to human habitations than in the
woodlands. They certainly are more
expoed to the attacks of snakes and
squirrels; snd the pot hunter, an
abounling and lawless nuisance in
The Bbnx operates almost iincheck-
ed in tie woodlands, but is excluded
from private grounds. Under these
condition. the robin and the catbird in
the subuns are almost like barnyard
fowls. Eien the wood thrush is GU
riously fearless when haunting the
shrubbery d private grounds.
One thing that attracts the birds
to the neighborhood of human habi-
tations is the relative abundance of
food. They feed not only upon the
scraps thrown out from the house,
but they find that well kept lawns
are particularly rich in earth worms.
Robins, grackels and wood thrush
es struggle for the hunting privi-
leges Of suburban grounds, and al
most any hour of the day you may
see fat robin chasing off its own
suburban preserve the saucy, slender
purple grackel, perhaps partly in
fear of incursions that the latter may
make upon its nest.
Some of the birds seem to visit
the woodland mainly in search of
running water for drinking and
bathing, and it often happens when
other parts of a woodland are silent
that the part through which brook
flows is noisy with the cries of birds.
1t is noticeable, too, that ROBINS
and wood thrushes seem to prefer
the edge of a woodland to its depths,
and you will hear more bird music
at evening on the edge of wood
land bordering on the grounds at
tached to dwelling than in the
gloom of its heart. Perhaps this
habit of the birds is in part owing to
ther fondness for singing from a
perch where they can see the sunset
A lawn set with trees and tfavers-
ed by brook is an ideal place for
birds, as combining all the advanta-
ges of the woodland and of human
neighborhood.
When summer is over and the
time of migration approaches, the
birds that have made their homes
near human habitations seem more
to frequent the woodlands and the
fields. BY that time the young are
large enough to care for themselves
and to escape the attacks of their
wild enemies, and this fact may deter
mine the conduct of the parents.
AT any rate the autumn wood
lands Of the suburbs are noisy with
the chatter of hungry robins and
wood thrushes and the calls of the
vociferous highhole.
Meanwhile some of the shyel
birds have been frightened away
from the suburbs. The whippoor-
will, which used to be heard fire.
quently a few years ago in many
parts of The Bronx is now unknown
save in remote and very quiet spots
His melancholy and insistent cal
is no longer heard, even in places
where the quail still whistles from
early May to mid-July. So, too, the
larger birds are leaving the suburbs
The blue heron is one of those that
have sought safer quarters.
Even the fish hawks, which used
to be seen soaring high and heard
chirping from the clouds in parts ol
The Bronx midway between the
Hudson and the Sound seem to have
given up that region They doubt
less occasionally came inland to fish
the public reservoirs, and have giyer
up the practice, either because fish
are grown scarce or fishing is dan
gerous SO near the habitations oi
men.
Gulls are now seldom seen in ths
inland portions of The Bronx. The
more familiar songbirds, however
cling tenaciously to their old haunt:
in The Bronx in spite Of grow
ing human population; and wher-
ever a house with large grounds j:
maintained they seem to be increas.
ing rather than decreasing.-N. Y
Sun.