14 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



HAVERHILL 



I was reading in my living-room, on the third floor, with my canary 

 singing in his cage by the window, when a crash came. I beheld what I 

 first thought a pigeon hanging on the sill, but which on nearer approach, 

 I found to be a sparrow hav/k! He flew away to a neighboring roof and 

 made repeated attempts to pierce the window and catch the canary, so I had 

 ample time to study him and appreciate his beauty. My canary was be- 

 coming too frightened, so I opened the door of his cage, and away he flew to 

 a safe dark corner, seeking refuge from murdering marauders. My offer of 

 less tempting food did not interest the hawk, however, and he flew away for 

 more appetizing bits. This seemed a rather unusual experience and I 

 thought it might interest you. 



Mrs, Thomas F. Capeles. 



MILTON 



I can report a very pleasant winter in the number of birds that I am 

 feeding. At the suet boxes in trees near the house I have seen a pair of 

 hairy woodpeckers, a brown creeper, chickadees, white-breasted nuthatches, 

 blue javs and a red-breasted nuthatch, and on the trees, but not at the suet, 

 on January 5lh, a pair of purple finches, the male a mature bird in full 

 plumage — with bright raspberry-red head, shoulders and upper breast. At a 

 second-story window I have a feeding place in the shelter of a bay window 

 that has two shelves on which I keep trays with hemp and sunflower seeds 

 and on one a small aluminum cup in which I have water, thawing it out as 

 it freezes. To these trays come almost constantly five chickadees, a pair of 

 white-breasted nuthatches, a pair of j uncos and one male red-breasted nut- 

 hatch, the latter a very thirsty bird, drinking from the cup much oftener 

 than the others. In extreme weather, I add to the seeds bread-crumbs and 

 cracked butternuts, from which they take the meat. I am fortunate in 

 having trees near the house from which they can easily fly to the trays. 

 Often they stop several minutes on the trays and rest. Sometimes two 

 chickadees will be on the upper tray and a pair of juncos or nuthatches on 

 the lower. In severe storms, at night I take in the tray from the upper shelf, 

 but leave always the one on the lower shelf, and very early in the morning 

 I hear some of the birds eating from it. I have had the same suet boxes 

 and trays for several years and they have been used by either a chickadee 

 or a nuthatch, but I never had so many and constant visitors as this season. 

 Friends have seen in Milton recently a flock of evening grosbeaks. 



(Mrs.) E. F. Luther. 



LOWELL 



I want to bring to your attention a bird experience that has interested 

 me greatly. I live in the residential section of our city, going out every 

 morning at 7:45 for about an hour. The first of the week my attention was 

 called to three good-sized birds in a tree overhead. I stopped for a moment, 

 and to my utter surprise, two if not the three of these birds were singing 

 and singipg well. I was familiar with the shrike and a few minutes later 

 was able to identify these birds as such — but the song! I had never heard 

 that before and find Chapman giving v/arm March days as the time when 

 the song should be looked for. The first three phrases of the song resembled 

 that of the catbird. No one Avith whom I have ever spoken has ever heard 

 the song of the shrike, though knowing that there was a song. I have called 

 the attention of many of their neighbors and passers-by to these birds and 



