136 



THE OOLOGIST. 



erect, he stalked away after his fly- 

 ing harem as independent and fear- 

 less as a barnyard chanticleer. We 

 have seen pheasants again in Thomp- 

 son's woods. Woodcock returned Mar. 

 1 in fewer numbers than usual, and 

 Wilson's snipe tarry but a day or 

 two in our meadows. 



All the black-coated gentry — grack- 

 les, cowbirds and redwings — with 

 phoebes, robins, sparrows and blue- 

 birds were here March 15; but it was 

 a long and lonesome month and a 

 half before the regular summer resi- 

 dents appeared. During the fierce 

 snowstorm of April 15 I was afield 

 looking up these early arrivals shel- 

 tered in queer nooks and corners. 

 Thrashers and barn swallows did not 

 come till May-day. For many years 

 orioles have come back May 6 and 7 

 — never later than the 8th; but on 

 this backward season orioles, bobo- 

 links, tanagers, grosbeaks and repub- 

 lican (Cliff) swallows were ten days 

 late, in both counties. Hummers and 

 W'hip-p'orwilus alone were on time. As 

 usual cuckoois and nighthawks were 

 the last to arrive. The stake-drivers 

 and marsh-hawks have not put in an 

 appearance in the meadow this year. 

 The unerring barndoor record from 

 Selectman Lillibridge has not yet 

 come to hand for comparisons with 

 "Quaal Trap dates." 



Mr. Lillibridge picked up two tana- 

 gers killed by the extreme ccld, and I 

 found and restored a chilled tanager 

 in the odd yearling half-dress. A sec- 

 ond visit to an incomplete clutch of 

 ruffed grouse showed that it had been 

 raided by foxes who had a burrow 

 near the nest. The robin that has 

 bred for three years in the punky hol- 

 low of our eld ash tree had three eggs 

 April 20, but the next morning a fe- 

 male sharp-shin took off her head; 

 but the accipiter got entangled in wire 

 fencing and was in turn decapitated. 



A partridge with tiny chicks came 

 charging at my feet with dragging 

 wings and drove me out of the woods. 



Crows took the eggs from the Bog- 

 gy Meadow marsh harrier the third 

 week in May, and I have noted crows 

 egging many times during the past 

 two weeks. At 4 a. m., before farm- 

 ers are out of doors, crows rob all the 

 robins' nests they can find around the 

 nouses and orchards. Under semi- 

 protection there are still eight unhar- 

 ried robins' nests with eggs and 

 young on the Lillibridge place, but 

 the crows have left but three nests 

 untouched at our cottage. These 

 thieving corbies on June 5th dug out 

 two full sets of bay-winged bunting, 

 vesper sparrow; which I had been 

 trying to protect near the bungalow. 



There were a dozen Humming 

 birds on a cold May morning with the 

 n ercury at 35 frolicking and mating 

 on a patch of flowering currant in a 

 neighbor's yard. For an hour I 

 v.'atched the vivid males and three 

 females woo, fight and feed. It was 

 an unusual sight to see six or seven 

 ruby throats at one time perched 

 among the yellow bloom and when 

 the whole bunch were a-wing pur- 

 suing each other in anger and play 

 it was a maze of whirring wings, ex- 

 panded tails and amatory flashing of 

 gilded backs and blazing gorgets. In 

 the decrease of useful birds it is good 

 to note the general increase of bobo- 

 links. The farmers' name of "skunk 

 blackbird," obtains here; but not so 

 well known is the southern darkey's 

 sobriquet of "wild mares" — so call- 

 ed from the supposed resemblance in 

 the ncte to the whinnying of a horse. 



Mr. Richards has taken several sets 

 of buteos eggs in the town of Nor- 

 wich this season, and with great 

 nerve he went a second time to the 

 tree from which he had a frightful 

 fall a"d secured the set of barred 



