450 



Bird- Lore 



three \cars ago next Fel)riiary, a friend 

 and I walked nearly eight miles in slush 

 several inches deep, and in the face of a 

 blinding snowstorm, to see the only sjjcci- 

 men of this bird seen hereabouts for many 

 years. Gratification upon finding I lie 

 object of our search after such effort does 

 not express how we felt. The next year 

 one specimen only was reported, while 

 the following season a pair and nest were 

 observed all summer. This same pair has 

 raised another lot of young in the same 

 tree this summer; but the most interesting 

 of all is the fact that within five miles of city 

 hall there have been seen, in at least six 

 different localities, during the past three 

 weeks, some thirty-five to forty Red- 

 heads, and most of them immature birds. 

 This might indicate that they were breed- 

 ing in this locality this season, or perhaps 

 it is the question of food supply that 

 brings them here now. However, several 

 have been observed very carefully by 

 members of the Hartford Bird Study 

 Club, with the result that they are con- 



fident llic birds are breeding in tliis sec- 

 lion. I am interested to know whether 

 other students in Connecticut ha\-e 

 noticed an increase in the number of Red- 

 heads seen in the state within the last 

 year or two. 



Several years ago, so many Bluebirds 

 were killed by the severe winter that the 

 following spring almost none were seen, 

 and many northerners who look anxiously 

 forward to the first sweet whistle of this 

 bird were utterly discouraged by the 

 appalling mortality among the Bluebirds. 

 Evidently they have 'come back,' since 

 within the past month I have seen more of 

 them than previously observed in many 

 years all taken together. Have seen sev- 

 eral large flocks of them, and on every 

 walk, this past month, have seen from ten 

 to fifty or more. Good luck to this faith- 

 ful harbinger of spring, and may his kind 

 multiply and fill the land with their sweet 

 warble as the sap begins to flow in the 

 sugar orchards. — -Geo. T. Griswold 

 Harlford, Conn.. 



liLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE 

 Photographed by Arthur A. Allen, Ithaca, N. Y. 



