No. 4.] DIOSTKUCTION OF BIRDS. 477 



was that, like human beings in a similar case, they had huddled 

 together , for the sake of warmth. In another room were four 

 small dead young birds, and in a third a dead adult female. 



These dead birds in the box, together with the birds picked up 

 on the ground and others found by neighbors, account for prac- 

 tically all the adult martins in this sn\all colony, which did not 

 number over a dozen. Some rooms in the two boxes were not 

 cleaned out, which will probably account for the small number of 

 young birds found. 



The colony appears to have been exterminated, for no martins 

 have since been seen at the boxes. A few martins (an offshoot 

 of the Russell colony) were domiciled at a neighbor's box not Tar 

 away ; a similar casualt}' occurred there, dead birds, both young 

 and old, being found in the box or on the ground. 



A few martins have occupied for some years past a box at the 

 farm of Mr. J. Herrick in West Peabody. On July 1 I inspected 

 this box, and found in one room one egg and one dead young bird, 

 in another room three dead young birds, and in a third two dead 

 adult females and one dead j'oung bird. If the remainder of this 

 small colony died outside the box, they might have been lying any- 

 where out of sight in the tall grass or among the vegetables in the 

 kitchen garden. Mr. Herrick stated that no martins had been 

 seen at the box for some time. 



A colony of martins on the estate of Mr. A, B. C. Dakin 

 at Concord suffered a similar fete, as did still another at 

 Concord Junction. In ever}^ case that I have personally 

 investigated the martins, both old and 3'oung, are believed 

 to be dead. 



Mr. Kohlrausch had a colon}^ of about forty or fifty pairs 

 at Billerica. He recovered thirty-five bodies of adult birds, 

 nearly all of which died on June 21 and 22. They were 

 very much emaciated. Later he wrote that five or six birds 

 were seen about the house on the 23d and 24th, and then 

 disappeared. He hoi)es that some survived, but probably, 

 as in other cases, they dropped dead in the fields. Mr. 

 Bailey, who was looking out for martins for a week, did 

 not see one alive after the 22d. He reports one colony in 

 Chelmsford all lost, and two colonies in AVinchendon all 

 lost but five birds. Mr. AYalter Steele of Stonehuni, who 

 had a sixteen-room martin box, which had been occupied 



