No. 4.] DESTRUCTION OF BIKM)S. 409 



Mr. ( '. A. R(M'(1 wi-itcs: " ^'dlow warblers, redstarts, 

 prairie iiiid (•Iiesfimt:-side(l wai'blers were ii liable to <^ct food 

 tor theij- young, and the results wej-e apparent on iiispeetin<:^ 

 the nests. In some eases the skilfully woven nests of the 

 red-eyed vireos had made water-tight baskets, and tlie dex- 

 terity of the birds had been the cause of the death of their 

 little ones. Out of twenty-one nests that I had located as 

 l)eing in particularly desiral>le situations to make photo- 

 graphs but one escaped destruction. Twenty nests out of 

 tw^enty-one destroyed ; seventy-five out of eighty young 

 l)irds and eggs that the nests contained perished. The one 

 nest which escaped out of the number was that of a house 

 wren. As many other localities throughout the country suf- 

 fered a great deal worse than this, it is proliable that this 

 mortality among J'oung birds is not in excess of what the 

 average will be. As these twentv-one nests were but a frac- 

 tion of those that were in the locality, and as this localit}^ 

 is but an infinitesimal ly small part of the territory \vhich was 

 invaded by storm and flood, it can be readily imagined that 

 the sum total of young ])irds which perished will amount to 

 hundreds of thousands." * 



Mr. Reed l)elieves that about Worcester the warblers suf- 

 fered most. Sixteen observers in ditferent parts of the State 

 report that nests containing young Ijirds or eggs were broken 

 down, and twenty-four report the death of young birds. 

 The robins, orioles, vireos, chipping sj)arrows, warl)lers and 

 flycatchers appear to have suflered most in this way. Starva- 

 tion probal)ly had much to do with their death in many cases. 

 Mr. Mosher writes that many robins' and chipping sparrows' 

 nests were blown down and the young or eggs destroyed, and 

 that flycatchers also suifered severely. Professor Hodge 

 speaks particularly of robins and chii)ping sparrows. Rev. 

 Geo. Love of Springfield tells of the destruction of sparrows' 

 nests by the wind in the Connecticut valley. Mr. Outrani 

 Bangs states that at Warehani many robins' nests were blown 

 down, and some clii[)ping and song sparrows' nests, but 

 believes that the 3'oung birds had left in most of the cases 

 that he observed. Mr. Reed writes: "So far as I have 



* American Ornithology, Vol. III., No. 8, August, 190.3. 



