A New Departure for the Redwing 



61 



I stopped long enough to photograph this rather unusual find, and when I 

 resumed my Bobolink work I soon happened upon another, this one containing 

 four eggs. This second nest was distant from the first about a hundred yards, 

 and no doubt there were more nests in the field, because at one time there were 

 four anxious' females hovering in the air. 



As stated above, the Redwings have always nested hereabout, either on 

 the salt meadows or along the borders of fresh-water ponds. The pond-borders 

 have, of late years, become so spoiled by cows and men that they now offer 

 scarcely a suitable nesting-site. The salt meadows have all been ditched, and I 

 often think tliat I would mucli rather endure mosquitos in their former numbers 

 than to have the scarcity of l)ircl-life on tlie meadows which this ditching has 

 apparently caused. Formerly, during the spring and fall migrations, the meadow 

 lands attracted Greater Yellow-legs, Least and Semipalmated Sandpipers, 

 Semipalmated Plovers, and several others which are now rarely seen there. 



However, these migrants are not the only birds to be affected. The Redwings 

 nested formerly in such numbers that to find half a dozen or more of their nests 

 within an hour was nothing remarkable. But the drying up of the meadows has 

 brought about a change. The grass is now parched, and small fish lie dead in 

 stale water-holes where Night Herons and Green Herons once made successful 

 catches. Soft mud here and there after a rain bears the impressions made by 

 Crows' feet, and I am inclined to believe that the Crows play a more or less 

 important part in the increasing discomforts of the Redwings. Before, the mead- 

 ows were, for the most part, covered with water to the depth of several inches. 



HILLSIDE WHERE KEUWIXGS NEST AMOXG THE DAISIES 



