BIRDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 73 



bers to a considerable extent in the last quarter of a century, and the same is 

 true to a less degree of the Golden-winged Warbler. 



Another alien biped has made inroads among our song birds both with the 

 gun and with bird-lime. I refer to Italian workmen who are employed so largely 

 of late years in some parts of the County. They shoot every bird in sight from 

 a Chickadee to a Robin. One arrested in the Swampscott Woods on November 

 3d, 1903, had twenty-three Robins in his possession ! Still another alien has 

 indirectly diminished the native birds, namely the gipsy moth. In the efforts to 

 exterminate this pest, the underbrush at Swampscott has been cut and burned, 

 interfering with the breeding places of such interesting birds as the White-eyed 

 Vireo and Yellow-breasted Chat. 



The prolonged rain storm of June, 1903, nearly exterminated the Purple 

 Martins of Esse.x County, and it is doubtful if they will return, as the English 

 Sparrow is in full possession of many of their houses. The Swifts, Red-winged 

 Blackbirds, Tree Swallows, Eave Swallows, and many other birds suffered by the 

 same storm, and some of our resident birds were decimated by the unusually 

 severe winter that followed. In fact, there would be scarcely a Bob-white in the 

 County to-day, if a fresh stock of this bird had not been introduced by sports- 

 men the following spring. 



