StNicholas [serial] . used to be; the winters are not so bracing;Vol. XXVII.—6. the spring is more uncertain; and honest menare fewer. But there is not much change, afterall. The change is mainly in us. I see nodecrease in the great body of our common field,orchard, and wood birds. I do not see thecliff-swallows I used to see in my youth; theygo farther north, to northern New Englandand Canada. At Rangeley Lake, in Maine, Isaw the eaves of barns as crowded with theirmud nests as I used to see the eaves of myfathers barns amid the Catskills. In the cliffsalong the Yukon in Alaska they are said
StNicholas [serial] . used to be; the winters are not so bracing;Vol. XXVII.—6. the spring is more uncertain; and honest menare fewer. But there is not much change, afterall. The change is mainly in us. I see nodecrease in the great body of our common field,orchard, and wood birds. I do not see thecliff-swallows I used to see in my youth; theygo farther north, to northern New Englandand Canada. At Rangeley Lake, in Maine, Isaw the eaves of barns as crowded with theirmud nests as I used to see the eaves of myfathers barns amid the Catskills. In the cliffsalong the Yukon in Alaska they are said toswarm in great numbers. Nearly all our game-birds are decreasing in numbers, because sports-men are more and more numerous and skilful,and their guns more and more deadly. Thebobolinks are fewer than they were a decadeor two ago, because they are slaughtered moreand more in the marshes and rice-fields ofthe South. The bluebirds and hermit-thrusheswere threatened with extinction by a cold wave 42 A BIRD TALK. [Nov. A NEST OF YOUNG KOBINS FED BY A CHIPlING-SPARROW. and a severe storm in the Southern States, a few-years ago. These birds appear to have beenslain by the hundred thousand. But they areslowly recovering lost ground, and in ten or moreyears will no doubt be as numerous as ever. Isee along the Hudson River fewer eagles thanI used to see fifteen years ago. The collectorsand the riflemen are no doubt responsible forthis decrease. But the robins, thrushes, finches,warblers, blackbirds, orioles, fly-catchers,vireos, and woodpeckers are quite as abundantas they were a quarter of a century ago, if notmore so. The English sparrows, no doubt, tend to runout our native birds in towns and smaller cities,but in the country their effect is not are town birds anyway, and naturally taketheir place with a thousand other town abomi-nations. A friend of mine who lives in theheart of a city of twenty thousand peopleamused me by recounting his observation upona downy wo
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