468 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



see a single flock in a trip by rail and trolle}^ from East 

 Tempieton to Springfield. He reports that song sparrows 

 have been much less abundant than usual, and that he has 

 not seen a bobolink since the rain. Mr. Walter B. Randall 

 of Newton Upi)er Falls, on the Charles River, sa>'s the 

 marshes along the river were under Avater. He had not 

 noticed bobolinks or song sparrows where heretofore they 

 had been plentiful. He saw blackbirds' nests under water. 



Mr. Chester A. Reed sa^^s the Maters of Lake Quinsiga- 

 mond at Worcester rose to an unusual height, entirely sub- 

 merging the breeding i)laces of red-Avinged blackbirds at the 

 heio'ht of the breedino: season. He found scores of their 

 nests subnieroed. Mr. F. A. Bates writes from South 

 Braintree, Norfolk County, that the Axatcrs of the Monati- 

 quot River rose as they did about thirty years ago, Avhen all 

 the nests in the o-rass tussocks were subnieroed and deserted. 



Other observers report a scarcity of song sparroAvs, black- 

 birds and bobolinks Avhere heretofore, in many cases eA^en 

 in the spring before the rains, they were abundant. Only 

 one correspondent, ]Mv. S. S. Symmes of Winchester, re- 

 ports an abundance of blackbirds ; but there the ponds and 

 reserA^oirs, having ample outlet to the sea, do not rise above 

 a certain limit. Possibly blackbirds driven from flooded 

 localities may have gone there. 



Great as AA'as the loss of bird life by the floods, their area 

 Avas necessaril}'^ limited, and their fotal effect aa^s therefore 

 local when compared Avith that caused by the storm on the 

 eastern seaboard in other Avays. 



The storm of June 12 came at a time Avhen the A^ounij^ of 

 mauA' of the smaller insectivorous birds had recenth^ hatched, 

 and man}'^ that survived this storm Avere still in the nest, or 

 but just out of it, AA'hen the storm of the 21st destroyed them. 



]\lr. Bailey Avrites that the storm of the 12th exterminated 

 nearly all nestlinijs of the red-cAcd and A'cllow-tlu'oated 

 vireos, Baltimore orioles and chij)ping sparroAvs Avithin a 

 mile of his place. He counted fourteen nests of the red-eye 

 and seven of the yellow-throat that Avere destroyed. One 

 brood of orioles Aveathered the storm until the 20th, but were 

 all dead on the 24th. 



