240 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Belmont — where, however, a few scattered pairs still breed. Thus it has come 

 to pass that those of us who, with the advent of each fresh summer, feel an 

 uncontrollable longing to renew early associations by rambling through fields 

 crowded with white daisies and golden buttercups and alive with rollicking Bobo- 

 links, must now go well beyond the confines of the city of Cambridge to gratify 

 this desire. Fortunately the birds are still common enough in the meadows 

 about Waverley, at Rock Meadow, and at various other localities to the westward 

 of the town centers of Arlington, Belmont, and Watertown. Their gradual with- 

 drawal from the more eastern portions of the Cambridge Region has been coin- 

 cident with, and, no doubt, due largely to, the physical changes which have been 

 wrought in so many of their former haunts. They have been steadily diminish- 

 ing in numbers, however, in many other parts of Massachusetts, for twenty years 

 or more. This general decrease has been caused chiefly, I believe, by the 

 changed methods and season of harvesting our hay crops. Formerly the grass 

 was cut by hand, and rarely before the middle of July when most of the young 

 Bobolinks were safely on wing; now late in June, while nearly all of them are 

 still in the nest, the fields are so thoroughly shorn by the mowing-machine and 

 scored by the horse-rake that the young birds stand little chance of escape. 



At the close of their breeding season in July, and when the migratory 

 flights are arriving from further north in August, Bobolinks resort, in flocks, to 

 the Fresh Pond Swamps, where they feed on the seeds of various kinds of wild 

 grasses and sedges. We used to find them at these seasons in the salt marshes 

 along Charles River, sometimes in very considerable numbers. 



132. Molothrus ater (Bodd.). 

 CowBiRD. Cow Bunting. 



Common summer resident ; also found casually in winter. 

 SEASONAL OCCURRENCE. 



March 13, 1898, one seen, Arlington, W. Faxon. 



March 25 — November i. (Winter.) 

 November 21, 1898, one seen, Belmont, W. Faxon. 



NESTING DATES. 



May 15 — June 15. 



The Cowbird is occasionally seen in our garden, in May or early June, 

 engaged in a furtive search for the nests of Vireos, Yellow Warblers or Chip- 



