M onthly B ulletin 11 



the size and shape I felt sure it was a sparrow hawk, the first I have ever 

 seen in Nashua in winter, although I have noted them at the Arnold Arbore- 

 teum in mid-winter. Pine grosbeaks are roaming about, also evening gros- 

 beaks. A northern shrike was recently reported to me from Woodlawn 

 Cemetery. I saw a deer run through the schoolhouse yard opposite my 

 house day before yesterday. A big colony (hundreds) of starlings winter- 

 ing in an old church steeple on Main Street in heart of the city. 



Manley B. Townsend. 



Good Bird Food 



The monthly bulletin is greatly enjoyed. 



When we eat a squash we dry the seeds and put them through a meat- 

 grinder (large orifices) and the broken seed is eagerly devoured by the 

 chickadees. 



Those breezy bird- jottings by Mr. Long in last bulletin were a pure feast 

 to us. 



A flock of goldfinches makes merry around here these days — what days 

 they are for January! Arthur J. Parker. 



JANUARY BIRD NEWS 



(Extracts from the Circular Letter Issued Monthly by the State 

 Ornithologist of Massachusetts) . 



We are now in the midst of a winter which has thus far been peculiar 

 in Massachusetts, with comparatively little snow, and unusually high average 

 temperatures. Blossoming sprays of arbutus were found on Mount Tom 

 December 21. A single buttercup was reported at Groton on New Year's 

 eve, and a bunch of these flowers was picked January 16. Dandelions were 

 in bloom in Hampshire County January 3. Willow catkins are reported now 

 in Boston, and wounds in the maples are said to be dripping sap near the 

 .coast in Essex County, Mass. Lack of snow in southern New England has 

 left an abundance of food uncovered for sparrows and other migratory seed- 

 eating birds, which nevertheless have left us and gone south as usual, leaving 

 but few of their numbers to spend the winter here. On the other hand some 

 northern species have been unusually numerous here notwithstanding the 

 mildness of the season. Northern birds appear to be more abundant now in 

 northern New England than here, while native birds are more common 

 along the southern coast of New England, on Cape Cod and Long Island, 

 than in most of Massachusetts. Thirty-five species were reported this week 

 from one of the Elizabeth Islands. Some of the water birds and sea birds 

 seem to have lingered late in their southward migration, perhaps on account 

 of open water in the north. 



The land birds now here are sedentary or wandering according to their 



