84 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 13-No. 6 



of their species at the reu;ul.ir time ; Phiebe and 

 Blackl)iicls roconiioiteied late in March; Thrash- 

 ers, Catbirds, AVreiis, Clievvinks, Swifts and 

 Eave Swallows, came on the crest of the hot 

 wave of April 27; Mayday, most of the local 

 Warblers ; Orioles on the 5th of May, the ex- 

 act date for many seasons; and by the 10th of 

 May, everything w'as accounted for except 

 Cuckoo. 



Your observinj;' hiiwker notes no diniiNution 

 in any species so far, and is bap])y to say that 

 the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is still increasing 

 in the environs of the city. On tlie seventh of 

 May, 1 noticed five males and two females in 

 city limits. Two pairs of Eave Swallows put 

 nests on the barn of our first selectman four 

 years ago, and on May 8, I counted twenty-six 

 pairs in the growing community. 



Much has been said at random about the 

 groat destruction of the game birds in this 

 State by the blizzard of last March. I will 

 record my observations on this point to 

 date. Happening just before their arrival here. 

 Woodcock, it would appear, could not have suf- 

 fered much on this score, yet I find them scan- 

 tily represented on good feeding and breeding 

 grounds. Without doubt, the great bulk of the 

 Quail were snowed uniler, liut they diil not all 

 perish as many sportsmen insist. 1 ran across 

 an unscattered bevy of fourteen, early in Ai)ril, 

 and one of eight in this town the same week. 

 I saw no more till the eighth of May, when in a 

 section where the farmers said they weie 

 wholly killed off, I heard three cocks calling to 

 each other that they were survivals of the fit- 

 test. May 9th, two cocks were calling five 

 miles .south of the city, and on May 14th, I saw 

 two single biiils in tlie towns of Groton ami 

 r.edyard. 



It is doubtful if a single Ruffled Grouse was 

 killed by the blizzard. .Their sturdy pinions 

 can break out of drifts or through icy crusts, 

 if, indeed, they are ever covered with snow. 

 Their habit of perching in hemlocks and thick 

 growths, is their salvation in such a crisis. 

 Perhaps, because the axe has 1-een so busy in 

 our heavy woods the past winter, Grouse have 

 bunched in tlie smaller growths. At any rate, 

 I nevei' before have started so many old cocks, 

 and have found five nests without search, two 

 of tlieni with no birds near. On April 22, I 

 found a nest with three eggs; visiting it again 

 on the 7th of May, I saw that a brush fire had 

 burned nest, eggs and perhaps the bird itself. 

 Like cold May storms, brush fires must l)e most 

 destructive to the young chicks. If one Par- 

 tridge's nest was burned that came under our no- 



tice, how many more are destroyed of which 

 we know nothing? 



May 6th, found nest with ten eggs, finshing 

 no parent; on the 8th, twelve eggs; still no 

 bird. On the 12th, Grouse just seen cover- 

 ing the eggs, and I did not then Hush her, 

 but noted into how small a compass she could 

 shrink looking no larger than a quail. On the 

 14th, she was sitting on hercompleted clutch of 

 thirteen. Site was peculiar, being in briai-s 

 some rods from the woods. The eggs were of 

 the light type, and when uncovered were con- 

 spicuous twenty-tive feet away, but the setting 

 hen, harmonizing with the dead briers and 

 leaves, would have been passed by at close 

 rpiarters. I flushed her twice to observe her 

 method of leaving clutch. She woulii sneak off, 

 run quickly about six feet, and then take wing 

 forty rods or more, stealing back home in about 

 half an hour. 4'bis hardy l)inl will never know 

 diminution in Connecticut as long as wood-lots 

 arc .illowrd to grow up into the very cover 

 needed to protect them. 



Between 8 and 9 a. m. on the morning of May 

 fi, while driving though thick second growth in 

 low land, in about three-quarters of a mile, my 

 climber and I counted thirty-nine Brown 

 Thrashers and thirteen Catbirds. A singing 

 male Thrasher was on the top of eveiy suitable 

 tree, and it w'as a veritable vale of harmony. 

 Hereabouts, there are more of these two 

 thrushes than when we went bird-nesting as 

 youngsters, and I think the tearful " Audubou- 

 ians " will complain of no lack of Robins when 

 their patches and cherry trees are under 

 tribute. 



Beyond this wave of thrushes, we drove 

 through a bog and a meadow, over each of 

 which a Harrier lazily swept along, indicating 

 promising ground to beat over tor Marsh 

 Hawk's eggs between 20tli of May and 1st of 

 .lune. -\ mile further on, we again vainly tried 

 to reacli our nest of B. liiieatus, surrounded 

 with water from as till swollen stream. We 

 could see that it was very heavily feathered, 

 and bits of drifting hawk's down, caught on 

 many bushes near shore, was a sure sign of in- 

 cubation. We drove to two Coojier's Hawk's 

 nests, nearly done, on the 22d, finding no eggs, 

 liut added lining in each, contenting ourselves 

 with tour eggs from the third Cooper in an 

 easy chestnut. We found that two pairs of 

 Uneatus, harried on the twenty-second of Ai)ril, 

 had begun their second clutches. 



We took a set of lineatus from an unusual 

 site. The interior of a small wooded swamp 

 had been cut off", leaving a fringe of tall bushes, 



