BIRDS OF NEW YORK 57 



Many accounts have been published of the wholesale destruction of English 

 sparrows and other birds by heavy rains, when large basketfuls of these 

 birds are sometimes gathered under the trees of city parks after the storm 

 is past. It is a noticeable fact that cold or wet weather for two or three 

 weeks when grouse chicks are young will leave the coverts with scanty 

 coveys of birds when the shooting season begins, and similar principles 

 apply to almost all our native birds. 



During the months of June and July 1906, the rails, gallinules, bitterns, 

 Swamp sparrows, Red-winged blackbirds and Marsh wrens were twice 

 driven from their nests and their eggs destroyed by the high water which 

 prevailed in the marshes of Ontario county as a result of the abvxndant 

 rainfall. During the same season a great calamity befell the birds of Ontario 

 county from a hailstorm which visited that localit}^ killing both old and 

 young birds or breaking up their nests. In the neighboring count v of 

 Yates, Messrs Burtch and Stone found many nests destroyed and noticed 

 a Wilson thrush which had been killed while incubating her eggs. The 

 calamity as represented by fanners in some parts of the county was 

 undoubtedly overestimated, but I am satisfied that about 20 per cent 

 of the nests were destroyed in a belt of country 16 miles in length bv 4 

 in width. 



It is now well known to sportsmen that bobwhites are winter killed by 

 deep snows or contintied sleet storms, as then they are unable to get the 

 necessary food. The Bluebird was nearly extirpated in many districts bv 

 the cold wave and sleet storms of 1895 which swept over the eastern United 

 States. For several years thereafter this bird was very scarce in most 

 portions of the northeastern states, and only recovered its former numbers 



SUGGESTIONS TO BIRD STUDENTS 



There are numberless good books on the birds of eastern North America, 



many of them profusely illustrated. The author has been asked man}- 



times to name the best book for the bird student. This task is too difficult, 



for the requirements of bird students are as varied as the number of books. 



