No. 4.] DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 403 



Whatever may have been the cause of the scarcity of 

 insects during the drought, tlie June rains finished the work 

 tlioroughly. Farmers reported that grasshoppers and crickets 

 were absent from the fiekls. Beetles and bees lay dead upon 

 the ground. There was no sound of insects in the air, and 

 for a time many insect-eating birds, or their young, were 

 actually starved. 



Another effect was })r()duced on the breeding of birds by 

 the scarcity of insect food. Hawks, owls, crows, jays and 

 squirrels, which ordinarily feed to a considerable extent on 

 insects, and some of which feed on insect-eating maunuals, 

 are likely, if hard pushed for food, to turn to the smaller 

 birds or their eggs or young. There is no doubt that crows 

 and s(|uirrels were very destructive to eggs and young birds 

 last year. They were also unusually destructive to corn and 

 other products. Several correspondents speak of this. 



Turning next to the direct eifects produced on birds by 

 the abnormal and severe weather of June, a brief description 

 of the conditions existing at Concord, Mass., which was then 

 my post of observation, may not be out of place. From 

 June 7 to 27 inclusive the temperature rose above 70° on 

 onl}'^ four days, and dropped below 50° on eight. It rained, 

 more or less, sixteen days out of the twenty, but there was 

 no severe storm until the 12th. At this time branches were 

 broken from trees, birds' nests were blown down and the 

 eggs or 3^oung destroyed, as they were elsewhere. On 

 June 15 a heavy rain continued nearly all day, and 2.35 

 inches of rain fell. There was no rain on the 17th or 19th, 

 but the weather was cloudy and cool until on Sunday, June 

 21, there came a severe easterly storm, with 3.16 inches of 

 rainfall and a strong wind. 



I was then at Ball's Hill, on the estate of Mr. William 

 BreWvSter, in a cabin overlooking the rising river, which on 

 the morning of the 21st had covered a large part of the 

 great Concord meadows, rising three feet before night. The 

 low temperature and the gale made heavy clothing neces- 

 sary for comfort. By noon the river had covered all the 

 meadows, and they resembled a lake surrounded by hills. 

 Along the channel, white-capped waves were tossed against 



