Bird lore - Project Puffin

It is understood that every family of
bird lovers will be subscribers to Bird-
Lore, for few would be willing to miss the
interesting bits of information to be found
in every number of this bird magazine.
Selections from Bird-Lore, the Audubon
Leaflets, books on Nature by standard
authors, and occasionally articles from
some of the popular magazines, might be
read at each meeting. This will prove a
very interesting part of the program, and
there will always be material enough to
fill out any schedule.
Good plates of birds like those obtained
with the Audubon Leaflets and the set
published with the 'Birds of New York'
will help in identifications, and, as the
cost is very small, every club should have
at least one set of each.
—
If we can get our clubs once started
along these lines, it seems possible that it
might become more of a problem to find
time for everything than to find some-
thing to do.
One j'ear's course in a bird club of this
kind should give every member a fairly
good knowledge of what we can do for
the birds, and what they are doing for us.
W. M. BuswELL, Superintendent Meriden,
{N. H.) Bird Club.
Ornithological Possibilities of a Bit
of Swamp-Land
For several years, I have had a bit of
swamp-land under my eye, especially dur-
ing the cooler months. It is not exactly a
beauty-spot, being bordered by ragged
backyards, city dumps, a small tannery,
and a dismantled factory, formerly used
by a company engaged in cleaning hair
for plasterers' use.
A part of the surface is covered by
cat-tails, the rest by a mixed growth of
water-loving shrubs, as sweet-gale, leatherleaf,
andromeda, and other shrubs which
like to dabble their roots in ooze. A
brook, connecting two large ponds, runs
through the swamp, giving current and
temperature enough to make certain a
large amount of open water, even in the
coldest weather.
Notes from Field and Study lOI
A little colony of Wilson's Snipe have
made this swamp their winter home for
at least fifteen years, and probably much
longer. Song, and generally Swamp Sparrows
can be found here all winter. This
winter, we have a Green-winged Teal,
finding feed enough to induce her to
remain; and over beside the cat-tails,
about some fallen willows, a Winter
Wren seems much at home.
During recent years, a sort of beach,
made by dumping gravel to cover refuse
from the hair factory, has been a favored
feeding place for various Sandpipers, as
well as the Snipe. The last of the Sand-
pipers leave in November, while the Snipe
remain.
Bitterns and Black-crowned Night
Herons drop in during the fall and summer,
and our increasing Ring-neck Pheasant,
the gunner's pet, loves to skulk around the
edges.
Tree Sparrows, Goldfinches, and their
kin attract an occasional Butcherbird and
the smaller Hawks, Pigeon, Sparrow, and
Sharp-shin in season.
—
Early spring brings a host of Blackbirds,
Redwings, Bronzed Grackles, and Rustics;
while a Cowbird hung about with some
English Sparrows, until Thanksgiving
time, this year.
We are always on the lookout for something
new to turn up in the swamp, and
are seldom disappointed. For so small a
place, not over five acres, it surely is a
bird haven; especially does it seem so
when, but a few rods away on the nearby
ponds, the ice-men are harvesting twelve-
inch ice. Naturally, local bird-lovers are
praying that the hand of "improvement"
will be stayed a long time in wiping out
this neglected little nook. Arthur P.
Stubbs, Lynn, Mass.
My Neighbor's Sparrow Trap
My neighbor one block to the north,
Professor E. R. Ristine, who gives me
leave to use his name in the present con-
nection, finally lost his patience with
English Sparrows {Passer domesticus), on
or about May 15, 1915. The fact that