Notes from Field and Study 



103 



and then as suddenly began again. The 

 sudden and uniform cessation of song at 

 these periods was particularly noticeable. 

 It was not until several such groups had 

 left the willows that any diminution in 

 the number of those remaining could be 

 observed, so numerous were the birds. 

 Judging by the size of these groups which 

 thus left from time to time, I estimated — 

 very conservatively, I feel sure — that at 

 the beginning of my observation more than 

 5,000 Red-winged Blackbirds were present 

 on this little willow-covered flat. 



By 7.15 a.m. only a few hundred birds 

 remained. Fewer and fewer of the flock 



returned each succeeding evening, so that, 

 after two or three days following this 

 observation, only about the normal 

 number of birds was to be found at any 

 time in this congregating-place. 



No doubt the abundance of Red-winged 

 Blackbirds, as well as many other of our 

 common birds, is to be attributed, in 

 part, at least, to the widespread influence 

 of the various Audubon and other bird- 

 protection societies scattered here and 

 there over the country, as well as to the 

 dissemination of bird-protection propa- 

 ganda. — Dayton Stoner, Iowa City, 

 Iowa. 



THE SEASON 

 XVIII. December 15, 1919 to February 15, 1920 



Boston Region. — The winter of 1919- 

 20 will long be remembered in eastern 

 Massachusetts as a real, old-fashioned 

 winter — periods of intense cold alternated 

 with snowstorms. After January 9, the 

 ground was covered by an increasingly 

 deep blanket of snow; twice the tempera- 

 ture fell to 20 below, and on seven days in 

 January the thermometer registered below 

 zero. True to the typical New England 

 winter, there was a January thaw (on the 

 27th; Temp. 50 ) and a blizzard on 

 February 5. 



During this arctic weather we were 

 visited by many northern birds. Evening 

 Grosbeaks appeared early in January, 

 and, two weeks later, Pine Grosbeaks 

 began to arrive and increased in numbers 

 until, in mid-February, the flocks were 

 nearly as large and as numerous as during 

 the last big flight in 1906-7. These birds 

 settled at once in the same trees that they 

 fed in thirteen years ago, so promptly, 

 indeed, as to suggest that when these 

 northern birds come yearly (as the Even- 

 ing Grosbeaks do nowadays), it is their 

 quick recognition of good feeding-grounds 

 rather than their memory of special 

 localities which brings them back to the 

 same spots year after year. 



Pine Siskins and Redpolls have been 

 numerous all winter, in flocks of fifty 

 birds or more sometimes, feeding most 

 often on the seeds of the gray birch. Well- 

 fruited birches, where these birds con- 

 gregate, can be recognized at a glance, 

 for they are soon surrounded by a brown 

 area, so thickly are the bracts of the cat- 

 kins scattered on the snow. Many Tree 

 Sparrows and Goldfinches, and a few 

 Juncos and Song Sparrows, have wintered 

 here, and Blue Jays and Chickadees have 

 been present in normal numbers. 



In contrast to the roving flocks of Red- 

 polls and Siskins, Song Sparrows spend 

 the winter alone, or, at most, with one or 

 two companions. Their winter quarters 

 are always near dense shrubbery, or 

 perhaps a pile of branches, where they are 

 sheltered from wintry winds. Even a gale, 

 filtering through the interstices of such a 

 thicket, must lose its force when broken 

 into innumerable draughts of air and 

 become, toward the interior, progressively 

 milder until in the midst there is a space 

 where a bird can find a safe, calm roosting- 

 place. Our forefathers applied this prin- 

 ciple when they made their tin lanterns, 

 punctured with countless, tiny holes. 



The ground on which the Bluebirds 



