434 BOARD OF AGKICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



martins and swallows is likely to be followed by an 

 increase of the insects on which they feed. This will prob- 

 ably attract these birds into the State, and favor their breed- 

 ing; but, unless boxes are generally put up for the martins, 

 and the English sparrows kept out, the martins may never 

 again become common in Massachusetts. The June storms 

 of 1903 will long be remembered as the chief cause of the 

 passing of these beautiful and useful birds. 



The effect of the hard winter of 1903-04 upon our resi- 

 dent birds seems not to have been very serious except with 

 a few species. The bob- white, or quail, has been nearly ex- 

 terminated over much of the State. The ruffed grouse, or 

 partridge, although considerably reduced in many sections, 

 appears to have bred well in the western half of the State 

 in 1904, and has done well locallv in the eastern counties. 

 Many dead blue jays were found during the winter, and in 

 some sections jaj's, crows and chickadees seem to have been 

 much reduced in numbers, but this is by no means universal. 

 I found jays somewhat reduced in Wareham, but crows had 

 increased. Both crows and jays w^ere considerably reduced 

 in Concord, while chickadees were not so common as usual 

 in either place. Some reports from south-eastern Massa- 

 chusetts indicate a scarcity of flickers and meadow larks, 

 but this is seldom noticed elsewhere. Screech owls suffered 

 severely, and were driven by stress of weather into barns 

 and dove-cotes, where they fed on mice and doves. Mr. 

 A. M. Frazar, the Boston taxidermist, informs me that he 

 had about forty of these birds brought to him, most of 

 which had been taken in dove-cotes. Some were picked up 

 dead. He also received about twenty Acadian or saw-whet 

 owls, that were found dead either in the streets of Boston or 

 in the country districts. Many observers report a recent 

 scarcity of screech owls, while others report them as nu- 

 merous. My own notes show them to have been rather 

 rare in 1904 where in 1903 they Avere quite common. 

 Superintendent Charles P. Price of the Middlesex Fells 

 Reservation found several barred owls apparently frozen to 

 death during the winter ; they were fat, and therefore had 

 not starved. 



