Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1916-09-10

ut 10 the common observation of per
sons who are interested in birds. and
e. q even the observation of many other
persons who have no particular interest
in the subject, that the Interpretation
laws of the federal government and OF
the various states are producing the re-
suits which are the aim of these laws.
A great increase is noted in the number
of song birds, game birds and especially
in the number of birds of gay plumage
in the country and in the suburban and
even the urban areas throughout the
United States This comment is often
heard among the Washington people
who are interested in birds. Last spring
they noted that bluebirds, indigo bunt-
ings. goldfinches. redstarts. orioles,
scarlet tanagers. summer tanagers, car
dinals and the yellow warblers were
more numerous than in preceding years.
and the increase in the numbers of
these gay and beautiful birds is appar-
ent to nearly everybody, and particu-
larly to persons who live in the sub
urbs of Washington on the edges of
the city, and who have gardens and
yards with shrubbery in them.
Cardinals and bluebirds have multi
piled at a very satisfactory rate. and
the number which remained in and
around Washington all last winter was
large. AT the present rate of increase
they will, within a few years, become
SO plentiful that they will force their
presence upon most unobservant per-
sons in the city.
Dan Beard. the naturalist, is reported
as having said at the Aldine Club in
New York: The new federal law
against killing migratory birds. or the
campaign of education carried on by
IN 70 nd
dubon societies, has resulted in much
larger number of wild birds coming
back from the south this year. Why.
the wild birds about Flushing. where
live. are SO numerous that their pre-
sunrise chorus is worth getting up to
hear. A crow has built her nest in a
tree in front of my house, in the center
Of the residential section of the town.
and is rearing her family there"
The following item was chronicied in
the New York news: Scarlet tanagers
have arrived in City Hall Park. Six OF
these brilliant birds hoped about on
the grass undisturbed by the crowds, in
competition with the English sparrows,
and one bird observer reported scar
let tanager gossiping with English
sparrows and starlings in a backyard
of East 14th street, Flatbush.
The scarlet tanager is fairly numer-
GUS around Washington, though usually
he keeps to the woods. Many have been
observed in the shrubbery along Rock
creek SOuth OF the grounds OF the Zoo,
and also in the Zoo grounds. but they
are more numerous in Rock Creek
Park.
The population of red-headed wood
peckers. downy woodpeckers and flick
ers has appreciably increased Most of
the native birds seem to get along
amicably enough with the sparrows,
and 1t Is possible that the charge
against the English sparrow or the
German sparrow that they were driv-
ing out the native birds was unjust. 1t
may be that mans hostility to the birds
was the cause of their near extermina-
ton and that the sparrow. though
somewhat of a pest and quarrelsome
toward some other birds. was not the
real culprit. When one sees a grackle.
or a robin. or woodpecker or a blue
bird dispense a flock of sparrows he
begins to doubt that 1t was the SPAR
row that drove the American birds
nearly off the earth.
The call of the cardinal is familiar
and a man can scarcely walk afield
without hearing 1t. 1t would seem that
not as many poets have written Of the
cardinal as of the biuebird. the thrush,
the gold finch and the bobolink.
Various swallows came to Washing
ton and its neighborhood last spring In
unusual number. The barn swallow v