8 Massachusetts Audubon Society 



one morning of zero weather a downy woodpecker alighted on a bush close 

 to the piazza but was not seen again. 



On February 28th a great flock of robins appeared. I should say about 

 thirty or more. Their breasts were very bright. They were feasting on the 

 remaining barberries evidently, as they left large red stains and a few red 

 berries on the snow near those bushes. They remained in our neighborhood 

 only a very few days, flying about together, and then disappeared westward 

 as suddenly as they came. 



Louisa P. Loring. 



LITTLETON'S LOADED CHICKADEE 



During the past month — February 15-March 15 — the following birds 

 were in this vicinity: juncos, blue jay, downy woodpeckers, tree sparrows, 

 redpolls, chickadee, purple finches, snow buntings, horned lark, fox spar- 

 rows, and a large number of crows and starlings. 



One neighbor reports having seen during the last severe blizzard a 

 chickadee with an icicle hanging from his tail. Every way possible she tried 

 to induce this little fellow into their house, or catch him, for he was strug- 

 gling hard against the icicle's weight, but to no avail. 



Margaret E. Thacher. 



WALPOLE 



Birds are few. One chickadee comes to my suet. My furnace-boy 

 lives near Clark's Pond and he says that a lovely large pheasant comes to 

 their house to get food. If a dog draws near, he dives into the snow, and 

 the same for a person. 



Mrs. G. throws out garbage and this morning she counted thirty or 

 more starlings and other birds; a pheasant also comes there. Mr. G. is 

 feeding the quail on his grain route. 



DIGHTON 



I have not had any of the uncommon birds, but one lady cowbird, who 

 appeared here on January 10th and stayed as a regular boarder until Feb- 

 ruary 8th, when she ate her dinner with much relish and left without paying 

 her board bill, and I haven't seen her since. I have juncos, tree sparrows, 

 English sparrows and starlings, and at one time, several of what I called 

 song sparrows. 



Have now and then had a chickadee and have a very few times seen a 

 purple finch, but they are regulars in some of my neighbors' yards. Also 

 evening grosbeaks, and my niece reported a pine grosbeak looking for food 

 on the sidewalk as she was going up through the village last Saturday. Also 

 my sister reported tonight six redpolls on her feeding-ground. They had 

 two white-throated sparrows all through January, and a lady living a mile 

 or two farther up the road reported two in her yard. 



My grocer today told me that he saw seven or eight robins back of his 

 house yesterday: also that while he was delivering groceries one day last 

 week back through the country, a bag of scratch-feed broke and he lost some 

 into the pung. He went into a house, and when he came out four quail 

 were in the pung eating that grain. I asked him if they got what was left, 

 and he answered, "Every grain of it." He said that one man told him of 

 a flock that is living in his barn. 



