gi JOURNAL OF MAINE ORXITHOLOGICAI. SOCIETY. 



Rainfall for June. 1906, was nearly twice normal, and may have 

 been harmful to younj^ chicks. Grouse or Woodcocks. 



Because of the partial failure of the Woodcock crop, much more 

 attention was given by sportsmen to the Grouse. This helped to 

 thin out the breeding^ supply. While most of the birds wintered 

 well, it is fair to suppose that some were mistaken for foxes or rab- 

 bits by i^unners (luring the winter months (I ha\e known gunners 

 to have strangely defective eyesight at this lime of year), and so 

 they suffered some loss of numbers from this cause.' 



Now let us see what our stock of breeding birds had to face in 

 the spring of this glorious year, 1907. 



The month of A])ril (delightful season) gave us seventeen and 

 one-half inches of snow, and so could spare us but two and three- 

 (juarters inches of melted snow and rain in addition. To these bless- 

 ings she added four degrees of cold to each day. or a total of one 

 hundred and twenty degrees more cold for the month than a normal 

 April gives us. 



'Lovely May," 1907. niggardly in rainfall, gave us half the 

 normal amount of drizzle, but made all ecjual by unloading one hun- 

 dred and fifty-five degrees more of cold than a well-regulated May 

 should have done, a daily average of five degrees of added cold. 

 This ma\ have meant many degrees of falling temperature within a 

 few hours, and with or because of this sudden drop, misfortune to 

 the (rrouse nesting during its three or four weeks' duration. Wheth- 

 er from this or another cause, (xrouse broods were rare in my terri- 

 tory. 



Rainfall for June, i9<^7. slightl>- above normal. 

 The Woodcocks seem to have done well. The fact that their 

 period of incubation is much shorter than that of their neighbors, 

 the Grouse, materially reduces the chances again.st their hatching 

 their eggs. Also, if we arc to believe the authorities. Woodcocks' 

 eggs are less affected by climatic changes. 



Under such unfavorable conditions as these in the nesting time, 

 there seems to me to be no need of enlisting an epidemic to aid in 

 accomplishing this foul deed. 



