lo Bird -Lore 



been killed by the unusual cold of 1911-12, their number would hardly have 

 been missed. 



By exclusion, then, the missing Bluebirds met their fate in the district 

 between the Potomac and Ohio Rivers and the northern boundary of the Gulf 

 States. This is the probable winter home of the individuals that summer in 

 the bereaved district, and it is also the region where the low temperatures of 

 last winter were most decidedly below the normal — temperatures so low that 

 thousands of even the native "hardy" trees and shrubs were killed back to the 

 roots. Only one observer reports the finding of frozen or starved Bluebirds, 

 but this is not strange, since the casualties came as the result of long-con- 

 tinued cold, rather than from a sudden severe storm; moreover it is a com- 

 mon practice of the Bluebirds to hide in cracks, crevices and tree holes 

 against inclement weather, and these hiding-places last winter seem to have 

 become their tombs. 



The outlook for the future is not specially disheartening. The Bluebird 

 has shown, after past disasters much worse than the present, a wonderful 

 power of recuperation; and probably less than half a dozen favorable years 

 will be sufficient to reestablish their former numbers. Not all the reports 

 are unfavorable even from the affected area; one writer from Indiana notes 

 thirteen occupied nests on a single farm. 



Photugru 



