Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-03-27
BIRDS BACK ON TIME.
Their Songs Heard in the Suburbs in
Spite of the Late Spring.

From the New York Sun
Winted's long hold upon this latitude did
not suffice to deter the migratory birds
from their punctual return. Before tie LIST
of March, while yet the morning tempera-
ture was from 10 to 20 degrees below freez-
ing, the song sparrow heard in the
suburbs and in the second week of March
the first robins were seen. Less than ten
days later the flicker calling from his
accustomed high dead trees in the Bathgate
woods, and on st. Patrick's day big hocks
of glossy grackes suddenly alighted and
began their metallic crinkling in suburban
trees.
1t is said that in year does the 10th of
March pass in these parts without at least
one robin being seen. Some observers see
their first robin a little later but by the
middle of the month everybody who has an
eye for birds has seen at least two or three
robins. The returning robins fetch with
them from the SOUTH where they are ruth
lessly shot, shyness born of an entirely
natural distrust of men. They prefer to
alight in high trees and are apt to make of
when human being comes too near.
1t takes only a few days for this shyness
to wear off, and then the robin is the same
fearless companion of man that he usually
is in this latitude. Before the LIST of April
the robins are feasting on suburban lawns
and prospecting about the caves of sub
urban houses, with view to nest building.
After that the robins are nearly as much
at home in the suburbs as the ducks and
chickens. When the purple grackles re-
turned to the suburbs the other day they
We're warmly welcomed by the English star
hngs, which do not migrate, and mingled
with the metallic creaking of the grackles
there came from the treetops the deliciously
sweet whistle of the starliags. The books
persist in saying that the grackles and the
starlings are not of one family, but their
superficial resemblance and their good COM
radeship make It hard to believe them
strangers in blood.
The starlings freely mingled with the
newcomers, following them about from tree
to tree, and visiting thus spots to which
they are commonly unaccustomed. The
spectacle suggested a family reunion. Some
days before the grackles appeared the blue
birds were sounding their delicious Whit
of call, something between a song and a
warbled note. Ire presence of the English
sparrows all winter long has driven the
bluebirds back to primitive habits of nest
ing, for the sparrows being on the ground
first preempt the bird boxes, and leave the
bluebirds, wrens and other small birds
which used to nest in such places to find
other homes.
Even the courageous house martins have
disappeared in some quarters because Of
the sparrows, though here and there the
martins are venturing to return. Perhaps
the sparrow owes his success in driving out
qualities as to the fact of his being fighting
qualities to tire fact of his being amaz-
ingly prolific and always at home He
does business at the same stand all the year
round, while the migratory birds pay the
penalty that attaches TO the luxury of
wintering in the south.
Even after the middle of March had come
tbs white-throated sparrow had not fully
thawed out his song. All winter long he
sounded part of his "Oh, Lord pity me" in
a half-hearted fashion, and mid-March
found him still short several notes of the
complete phrase. BY the time the weather
is warm enough to bring out his song in
its entirety he goes north to the Adiron-
dacks, where his lost soul cry makes the
wilderness seem doubly lonely. Only a few
of the white threats winter in these parts,
though many of them stop here for few
hours or a few days I'm their migratory
flight to and from the north.