Page:Bird-lore Vol 03.djvu/113

 JTor %t(ic)tv& anti ^tutiente^ Birds and Seasons FOURTH SERIES JUNE AND JULY BIRD LIFE NEAR BOSTON By Rai.hh Hoffmann EVEN before the May migrants return, the earl}' arrivals and some of the winter residents have chosen nesting-sites in the old apple orchards, and all through May and early June a student of birds is kept busy following up old friends or making new acquaintances. Birds return to their old homes with startling regularity, and yet there is a considerable amount of change from year to year in the avine population of a township. One species has had a successful year, and overflows from an old locality, so that a pair of House Wrens appear where there were none the year before, or some calamity overtakes the Prairie Warblers, and the old corner where the male sang is silent. While many birds are generally distributed, others are very rare, or abundant only in a few pe- culiar regions. Only in extensive marshes can we expect to find the Rails and the Marsh Wrens; the Purple Martin and the Cliff Swallow are found in one village, but not in the next. We may live near the edge of the breeding range of certain species, and find only a few pair, while to the south or north the bird becomes common. This is the case with the White-eyed and Solitary Vireos. By the middle of June the young begin to be hatched, and the parents' busiest time begins. In July the young appear in the fields and lanes, and by the end of the month are wandering about with their parents, learning their first lessons in geography. Some morning late in the month the first Solitary Sandpiper, returning from the north, reminds us that each season passes insensibly into the next. RIRDS THAT BREED IN THE VICIXITY OF BOSTON Pied-billed Grebe,* Black Duck,* Wood Duck,* American Bittern, Least Bittern,* Green Heron, Black -crowned Night Heron, Virginia Rail,*Sora Rail,* Florida Gallin- ule,* American Woodcock,* Spotted Sandpiper, Bob-white, Ruflfed Grouse, Mourning Dove,* Marsh Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk,* Cooper's Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk,* Red-shouldered Hawk, American Sparrow Hawk, Long-eared Owl,* Barred Owl,* Screech Owl, Cireat-horned Owl,* Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Black-billed Cuckoo, Belted Kingfisher, Hairy Woodpecker,* Downy Woodpecker, Flicker, Whippoorwill, Night- (98)
 * Rare, or very locally distributed.