492 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub Doc. 



ing of June 19 Mr. Horton again saw two foxes, nearly full- 

 grown, skulking along behind him. lie directed ine to a 

 song sparrow's nest with six eggs which he had found and 

 photographed during the morning, but ])efore I got there 

 the eggs were taken. In fact, as many as twelve nests were 

 robbed before we discovered the cause." 



Mr. I. Chester Horton corroborates this. He writes : 

 " I have spent some time the last two years in photograph- 

 ing birds' nests on, or near, the ground, and Avas sorry to 

 find in 1904 that nearly all the nests 1 visited were robbed 

 and destroyed. One song sparrow's nest was robbed a few 

 hours after I visited it, apparently by some animal that had 

 followed my track. One morning, while watching a bird, 

 I concealed myself in the branches of a small pine tree. 

 While watching there I heard a fox bark, and soon found 

 he was coming in my direction. In a few minutes two 

 foxes appeared, following my track, and came within fifty 

 feet of where I stood, stopped as though they partly de- 

 tected my presence, and, after playing a few minutes, made 

 off into the woods. On another occasion a half-grown fox, 

 following my track, came within fifteen feet of where I 

 stood, perfectly motionless, in a swamp. I have no doubt 

 that foxes discovered that I was seeking birds' nests, and 

 followed me and robbed the nests I found. While photo- 

 gra})hing nests I found three ovenbirds' nests, within a 

 radius of a few hundred feet, one being partly built, the 

 other two with freshly laid eggs. I waited several days 

 and visited them ao'ain. I should have stated that one of 

 these nests was about five feet from a path, and, knowing 

 that something was following me and destroying nests, I 

 did not move out of the path in visiting this nest. The nest 

 that I found partly built I photographed after it had eggs, 

 as it was rather peculiar, being constructed entirely of, and 

 lined with, pine needles. I also intended to photograph 

 the third nest, with the bird on it, as she was very tame ; 

 but on my third visit it had been robbed, as was the one I 

 photographed. I visited the one by the path several times, 

 but never sfejjped out of the jjcifh, and did not photograph it, 

 and was gratified to see the eggs hatch out and the young 



