JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



6f 



start, doubtless thinking that I was 

 some monster after her last baby 

 bird. I watched about but the squir- 

 rel didn't put in appearance. The 

 day following I was obliged to be 

 away, so I baited a box trap with an 

 apple and set it near the post. The 

 third morning as I went to investi- 

 gate the apple had not been touched 

 but the nest was now entirely empty. 

 For several days the birds didn't /Sing 

 but would sit silently side by side on 

 a limb of some tree near by. 



May 24, I heard the birds sing again 

 in the orcliard on the opposite side of 

 the house from the nest. I investi- 

 gated and found that a new nest had 

 been commenced in a knot hole in an 

 apple tree. By standing on tiptoe a 

 few feet away from the tree, I could 

 just see into the nest. 



June 6, there were five eggs in the 

 nest. The next time I went to the 

 nest the old bird was on. When she 

 saw me, she gave a quick start. I 

 now felt certain that the birds that 

 built this nest were the same ones 

 that owned the nest in the post. 



I looked again June 21 and found 

 the nest empty. There were also two 

 song sparrows' nests in the mossy 

 banks of a brook near by that were 

 robbed, one of five eggs, the other of 

 five young birds. Near these three 

 nests a pair of striped squirrels had a 

 nest in a stone wall. After the gate- 

 post tragedy I had procured a small 

 rifle and made warfare on the squir- 

 rels, but didn't succeed in shooting 

 the striped squirrels in the wall until 

 it was too late. Before winter I had 

 tlie squirrels all killed off, and I think 

 next season the birds will find this a 

 more attractive place. 



I have written this to call attention 

 to the destructiveness of these pests. 

 Last year I knew of a robin's nest 

 that was robbed of its eggs by a red 

 squirrel. My uncle tells me that one 

 day he found a striped squirrel in a 

 phoebe's nest sucking the eggs. Sev- 

 eral persons have told me of seeing 

 squirrels running along with bird's 

 eggs in their mouths. 



As far as my observation goes, but 

 a-small number of bird's nests have 

 their eggs hatch. In nesting time 

 there are no nuts for squirrels to 

 feed upon, and eggs and young birds 

 probably form a large part of their 

 diet. Wouldn't a bounty of one cent 



for each squirrel's tail do as much 

 good as the porcupine bounty? 



A Great Crested Flycatcher's 

 Nest. 



May 28, I started to weed out a 

 strawberry patch. I had to pass 

 through an orchard next to the house. 

 A short distance from the house is an 

 old apple tree. One of the largest 

 limbs which was hollow had been 

 sawed off. As I approached the tree, 

 I saw a Crested Flycatcher hovering 

 about among the branches with the tail 

 outspread like a Kingbird, and soon 

 its mate fiew out of the hole. This 

 same thing had occurred last year 

 and I had waited hoping that the pair 

 would make a nest here. I had been 

 particularly anxious to see a Crested 

 Flycatcher's nest and had often 

 searched for one in the deep woods. 

 As I saw the bird fly out this time, I 

 realized that I had again come to the 

 tree at an inopportune time. I was 

 careful not to pass by the tree but 

 made a wide detour around it. 



After weeding out the strawberry 

 bed, I removed a piece of board 

 which had been used to cover up 

 mulch. Under this was a green snake 

 and a cast-off skin. Here was a 

 streak of good luck. In the after- 

 noon I went to the strawberry bed, 

 and using two sticks for tongs, I car- 

 ried the snake skin and put it under 

 the apple tree. I had probably 

 frightened the birds away last year, 

 and I thought that their finding this 

 snake skin might strike them as a 

 good omen. 



The next day as I was hoeing in the 

 garden in sight of the tree, I heard 

 them at about eight o'clock in the 

 forenoon. I could see one of them 

 flying about in the tree and heard 

 what sounded like wild war whoops. 

 I concluded that they had found my 

 snake skin. Later in the day as I 

 went out to investigate, I found the 

 snake skin gone. I climbed up and 

 looked in. There in the cavity was a 

 nest made entirely of snake skins of 

 various sizes. A large one would be 

 broken up into three or four pieces. 

 A small one into perhaps two pieces. 

 At the entrance of the cavity, there 

 were several pieces that hadn't been 

 placed. The next day I heard anoth- 

 er succession of screeches. Probably 

 another snake skin had been brought 



