72 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



fORRESP<M:NCE 

 ^ ^r^ and Inform/ 



Information^ 



Deer in Noroton. 



New York City. 

 To the Editor: 



On May 22nd, on coming back from 

 the day's business in New York to my 

 home in Noroton, and in passing by 

 some of the larger meadows that at 

 "Fordfield" are given up to 'timothy 

 production, I saw what appeared to be 

 two calves lying down in the deep 

 grass of the meadow. The chauffeur 

 was instructed to drive me back to the 

 barn where I asked the farm superin- 

 tendent his reasons for turning out in 

 this choice hay-lot the two calves we 

 had at our barn. He said he had not 

 done so and did not believe that the 

 calves were out there but would look 

 in the barn and see. He came back 

 with the report that they were in the 

 boxstall. I then had him get in tin- 

 machine with me and we drove through 

 the lane to the meadow where I had 

 seen what I supposed to be the calves. 

 As our machine came within probably 

 fifty yards, the farmer said, "Why. they 

 are not calves but deer." While he 

 spoke they arose. There was a fine 

 young buck with a doe accompanying 

 him. They looked at us without much 

 apparent fear and then ambled off 

 probably twenty yards beyond. We 

 then alighted from the automobile, let 

 down the bars of the field, and wenr 

 into the field toward the deer, who 

 were again gazing at us. When we 

 came near enough, they frisked their 

 tails gracefully, and went off at a 

 good rate of speed to the end of the 

 field where they jumped over a large 

 high stone wall as though it were an 

 inch high, disappearing in the woods 

 on the other side. 



This is the first time that deer have 

 been seen at "Fordfield." We have 

 a pond where the muskrats have built 

 themselves house : the woods sound 

 every morning with the call of the 



quail : The lawn is covered with 

 grackles drawing the worms as they 

 come up in the morning from the sod. 

 We have all the delights of beautiful 

 birds and the ordinary woodland life, 

 but the unusual event of finding deer 

 in the meadows in so civilized a com- 

 munity as Noroton certainly was an 

 event that will not soon be forgotten. 



Tohn H. Shipway. 



Good Observations of Birds. 



Apollo, Pa. 

 To the Editor: 



The little observances made by your 

 readers have been interesting and in- 

 structive to me. Until I read the article 

 about the tame robin reported by Dr. 

 Mac Nider, of Texas, I supposed that 

 our robins went only to our southern 

 states to winter. He tells us that they 

 usually go to Cuba, Central America 

 and South America. A few robins al- 

 ways winter with us in Pennsylvania, 

 but when our robins migrated last fall 

 only to return in large flocks in Jan- 

 uary, we supposed the unusually cold 

 winter in the south drove them north 

 again. Large numbers of them sub- 

 sisted upon frozen apples in the or- 

 chards until Spring brought more ap- 

 propriate food. 



Among some of the observations I 

 have made is that of two chewinks 

 feeding - . They were in a woodland 

 field. They would hop along, pick up 

 a piece of bark or chip, flirt it to one 

 side and snatch up the insect which had 

 been hiding underneath. This is the 

 first time I saw such a systematic 

 search for food. 



Another oddity in nature was wit- 

 nessed by my son and myself. A large 

 brown thrush was seen to be attacking 

 very vigorously something in an open 

 field. The prey seemed hard to over- 

 come. After watching - the attack for 

 some minutes the thrush seemed to be 

 feeding upon its victim. We ap- 



