Part I.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 123 



of Commissioners on Fisheries and Game first undertook to 

 save them from complete extinction. After a rather careful sur- 

 vey of the island I felt sure that some 800 birds had been ac- 

 counted for. Others believed that there were as many as 2,000, 

 but in any case the experiment seemed quite certain of suc- 

 cess. Since then, however, a severe fire has swept the breeding 

 grounds, and it is now believed that the number of birds has 

 been much reduced. 



The Purple Martin. 



Despite the unseasonable storms of the past few years martins 

 have increased in some localities. Mr. J. A. Farley has secured 

 a statement from E. W. Padelford of Kingston who asserts that 

 the species has been slowly increasing there since 1907. Mr. 

 Farley says that in 1915 martins were nesting at two localities 

 in Carver and one in Westport. They have also settled again 

 at Middleborough and at Rock Station, and have been reported 

 near Springfield and at Gardner. 



The martins seen in Wareham in 1915 did not appear in 1916, 

 and apparently most of the young birds which were hatched in 

 Massachusetts in 1916 must have been destroyed by the storms 

 of June. Martins nest, however, as far north as Toronto, 

 Canada, and J. H. Fleming writes that he has observed there 

 the same habit of taking green leaves for their nests that Dr. 

 B. H. Warren has noticed in Pennsylvania. Mr. Fleming be- 

 lieves that the leaf cutting usually is done in hot weather when 

 the young are unfledged, and suggests that it may be a device 

 to cool the nest as well as to line it. 



, The Evening Grosbeak. 



In the winter of 1915-16 this species was reported in small 

 flocks from parts of Essex, Middlesex, Worcester, Hampden and 

 Berkshire counties, and from so many localities that it seems 

 probable that the flight covered most of the State, particularly 

 as the species was reported also from Maine, New Hampshire 

 and Connecticut. This seems to be the greatest New England 

 winter migration of this species on record, and may indicate 

 that the bird, once almost unknown here, is about to extend its 

 range permanently to this region. 



