8 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



UNUSUAL HAPPENINGS 

 From the Office of the Director, Division of Ornithology 

 136 State House, Boston, Massachusetts 



October 1, 1921 



Grouse seem to be increasing in number and their "crazy season" 

 has begun. On September 23 one observer reports that a friend, 

 awakened by a rumpus early in the morning, found a grouse in his 

 bed! The bird had come in through two panes of glass, but recovered 

 uninjured. 



On September 21 the eggs in a nest of bob-whites were found 

 hatched. They were not hatched on the 19th. This is an exceedingly 

 late brood. 



A young belted kingfisher fell down a chimney in Essex County, 

 Mass., and^came into a room through the fireplace, creating considerable 

 excitement. 



We frequently have reports regarding the taking of eggs and the 

 killing of young birds by snakes. A correspondent sends us the follow- 

 ing, which he vouches for: 



"In July when I was at work near Brookeville, Fla., a farmer's 

 wife called to me, saying a large gopher snake was robbing her hen's 

 nest. I hurried to the spot and saw a snake which measured 5| feet 

 taking eggs from the nest of a common barnyard fowl. The nest was 

 along a hedge near the road. 



"Quickly picking up a hoe I struck the reptile just as it swallowed 

 the last egg in the nest and severed the head from the body and then 

 picked the mutilated remains up by taking hold of its tail, and as I did 

 so six eggs, all unbroken, rolled out on the grass and soft sand. The 

 grateful woman who called to me gathered the eggs up, set them under 

 an old hen and in due course of time all of these eggs hatched." 



Edward Howe Forbush, Director, Division of Ornithology. 



QUAIL PLENTIFUL THIS YEAR 



The bob-white is plentiful this year. Two successive mild winters 

 and three good breeding-seasons have multiplied bob-white coveys 

 by the thousand, according to reports to the Biological Survey, United 

 States Department of Agriculture. In Virginia, Maryland, North 

 Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, and Indiana there has not been such 

 an abundance of the birds in many years. In a recent trip through 

 northern and northwestern Indiana, they were seen in greater numbers 

 than ever before, and wardens in many other states in which there is 

 no open season on quail report them abundant in their localities, notably 

 in Ohio, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska. In Massachusetts, reports vary 

 greatly. In somx counties the birds are scarce or wanting. In the 

 southeastern part of the state, especially Barnstable and Plymouth 

 counties, they are still numerous. 



