6 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



powers of observation. One day the boy — five years old — announced that 

 there was a nest in the grapevine, and that he had seen a black-throated 

 green warbler go into it. This seemed improbable, but investigation proved 

 it true; it also revealed the fact that the nest was swarming with vermin; 

 one little half-fledged bird was dead, and another very weak. The nest was 

 renovated, and the weak little bird doctored, but the mother bird would not 

 use the nest, so my daughter undertook the task of helping in the care of 

 the baby. The mother was perfectly satisfied with the arrangement. The 

 work went on until baby was fully fledged and strong enough to fly. My 

 daughter wrote: "I have had the most delightful time with the baby warbler. 

 Several times yesterday, when he was taking his exercise on the long piazza, 

 his mother alighted on my hand and fed him right there, while he stood on 

 one of my fingers." They have several snapshots showing the "baby" — 

 sometimes on the hand of the little girl, at other times on the boy's hand, 

 or that of my daughter. Is it common for warblers to show such confidence 

 in human beings? I am inclined to think that they knew the character of 

 the family living in that house with the convenient grapevine. My daugh- 

 ter's husband can go into the woods and call to him several kinds of 

 animals and birds. (Mrs.) J. L. Sanborn. 



WINTER VISITANTS. 



The State Ornithologist has established an information bureau so that 

 adequate record may be kept of unusual flights of migrating birds through 

 this region. He is in correspondence with observers from Canada to New 

 Jersey, and will give out through this Bulletin, so far as possible, advance 

 information of unusual flights of birds. 



Canadian ornithologists reported in November that there was a great 

 scarcity of rabbits (hares) in the north and that a flight of great horned 

 owls had come into their territory, possibly from the Hudson Bay region; 

 also that goshawgs had appeared, though not in large nmnbers. Inquiries 

 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut indicate that great horned 

 owls and goshawks have reached this region in rather unusual numbers. A 

 few snowy owls have been reported from along the coast. Goshawks have 

 been noted in Massachusetts from the coast to western Worcester County. 



In November a flight of whistling swans appeared in Maine, the first 

 authentic flight recorded in that state since records have been kept. Three 

 swans were seen in Freyburg, Oxford County, Maine, on October 27. Two 

 of these were killed for the state museum on November 3. The next morning 

 eighteen more were seen. Since then at diff"erent dates swans have been 

 reported along the south shore of Massachusetts on Cape Cod and Martha's 

 Vineyard in numbers varying from three to twenty-five or more. Northern 

 gulls of three species have been reported from the Cape. 



Snow buntings and homed larks came late in October and early in 

 November. Longspurs, siskins, pine grosbeaks and crossbills have been 

 reported. It seems quite possible that we may have an unusual flight of 

 winter birds. Anyone noting winter birds from the north is requested to 

 notify the State Ornithologist, Room 136, State House, Boston, Massachusetts. 



