THE OOLOGIST 



58 



over two feet in depth have of late 

 been considered very rare. During 

 most of the winters the creeks are 

 open and merry most of the season, 

 and occasionally the winters are 

 scarcely cold. Fickle sallies of the 

 weather are common, however, such 

 as a violent snow flurry on the first 

 of May or the middle of April. 



Weather conditions do not play such 

 an important part with the bird life 

 here as do their enemies among the 

 animal kingdom, however. Just how 

 much the snakes of the county affect 

 the bird life is impossible to say, but 

 it is certain that snakes are wondrou5- 

 ly abundant. A warm summer will 

 bring dozens of them out to bask on 

 the trunks and roots along the shores 

 of the creeks; and it is not unusual 

 to see as many as fifteen drop into 

 the water from the branches upon 

 some disturbance of their basking tree. 

 Black snakes, which occur more com- 

 monly among the wooded hillsides cer- 

 tainly do some damage, though pos- 

 sibly a negligible quantity. Several 

 times I have discovered them near or 

 at nests and twice I have taken them 

 away just before their intended meal. 

 I remember especially one snake which 

 was entwined about the low built nest 

 of a wood thrush, in which were four 

 young birds. The parent birds were 

 making a furious commotion, dashing 

 carelessly back and forth over the 

 snake and snapping their bills ve- 

 hemently. Their attacks evidently 

 kept the snake from his meal until I 

 got there, and of course, I suspended 

 his further operations. It was gratify- 

 ing how quickly the anxiety of the 

 birds subsided when the snake was 

 put out of commission, even though I 

 had my hands on the youngsters. 



Of course the towns and farms are 

 not free from the roving house cats 

 which do considerable damage, no 

 doubt, though I have not kept a sys- 



tematic record of their inroads. The 

 accipitrine hawks are not common 

 enough to be a serious menace, nor 

 are the great horned owls. Judging 

 from the nests I have kept under ob- 

 servation the birds do not suffer great- 

 ly from the ravages of the predatory 

 wild animals, either, though they cer- 

 tainly cause some trouble, since 

 weasels, skunks and raccoons are not 

 rare. The red squirrel, which maybe 

 such a menace to its bird neighbors, 

 apparently does not occur. Notable, 

 however, is the bronzed grackle as an 

 enemy of the smaller birds during the 

 nesting period. For successive seasons 

 I have watched them and their nest 

 robbing proclivities are surely as pro- 

 nounced as those of the blue jay, 

 which is strikingly rare in the county. 

 Often, when I have heard the birds 

 scolding some robber, I have expected 

 to find a cat or screech owl, but have 

 been surprised and a bit ashamed to 

 find the offender a grackle. I kept a 

 record of their mischief one spring, 

 and no less than fourteen nests of 

 small birds were attacked and in some 

 cases runined, by the grackles. Twice 

 1 have seen a grackle flying across 

 the college campus at Bethany, with 

 a robin or wood thrush egg in his 

 bill. The robins are quick and re- 

 lentless in attacking any grackle 

 within blocks, though I am inclined 

 to think that the habit is individu- 

 alistic with the grackles, rather than 

 characteristic of the species. 



With this rather abbreviated discus- 

 sion of the environment it may be 

 seen that conditions are favorable to 

 an interesting bird life even though 

 the monotony of the country lessens 

 the number of marsh, lake and conifer 

 loving species. 



The following list contains the 

 species recorded during a period of 

 residence at Bethany, from July, 1914, 

 to June, 1919. 



