Destruction by Elements and Disease 13 



Even birds as hardy and omnivorous as the 

 robin have a hard time in the late snowstorms. 

 Here in New Hampshire, robins are often driven 

 to eat the decayed apples which have hung 

 frozen to the trees all winter, and in some cases 

 they eat so much of this fermenting fruit that 

 they become intoxicated. 



Bad storms occurring in the nesting season 

 cause great havoc among young birds. The 

 wind breaks down branches and sometimes whole 

 trees containing the nests, and often the nests 

 themselves are blown to the ground. Con- 

 tinuous heavy rain chills and kills the nestlings 

 in spite of the best efforts of the parents to shield 

 their little ones. One pouring wet June day I 

 found a phoebe's nest on the side of a cliff in 

 Massachusetts. The cold water from the rock 

 above was dripping into it and the five young 

 birds were already dead. Only last spring a 

 pair of chipping sparrows had a nest in a little 

 bush close to my front door and all the young 

 ones were killed by a cold wet storm. The brave 

 little mother did her very best to shelter them, 

 and long after they were dead she continued to 

 sit on the nest to cover them with her wet and 

 bedraggled wings. 



Floods occurring during the nesting season are 

 sometimes very destructive to birds which nest 



