No. t.] DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 479 



Bank swallows and cave swallows were not generally 

 conunon in this State before the storm ; they have been less 

 common since. It has been said there arc no bank swallows 

 in Kssex County. Large numbers of bank swallows were 

 seen on the Charles River, flying low during the rain, l)ut 

 were not noticed afterward. 



No re})orts of the destruction of eave swallows bv the 

 June storms have been received, but several Reports say they 

 have disappeared. Mr. R. B. Pike of To})sfield, Essex 

 Count}', says they were uninjured there. Mr. F. C. Rich- 

 ards of Williamsburg, Hampshire County, writes that he 

 has seen no ehinmey swifts, and desires to know if the eave 

 swallows and nio-ht hawks are extinct. Mr. Owen Durfee 

 of Fall River, Bristol County, speaks of ten pairs of eave 

 swallows which sought a new nesting place in -luly. This 

 may or may not indicate that their nests were broken up by 

 the June storms. T neither saw nor heard a whippoorwill 

 after the storm, and night hawks appeared to be almost 

 equally scarce, alth(nigh I had seen more than ever before 

 in the spring migration. 



The information received on these matters in reply to 

 circular letters, as well as by correspondence and personal 

 investigations, would fill a small volume ; but the space 

 allotted to this report precludes the possibility of publishing 

 more of it here. A list of the persons who furnished infor- 

 mation in reply to the circular letters is appended. 



In the midst of all these pessimistic reports there are some 

 optimistic ones, which seem to indicate that the more com- 

 mon birds are still })lent3' in some localities. 



Prof. Wm. P. Brooks of Amherst says : " Birds of all kinds 

 seem to me to have been unusually abundant in Amherst this 

 year." Prof. C. H. Fernald and Dr. H. T. Fernald, also of 

 Amherst, were inclined to corroborate this statement. Dr. 

 Flavel S. Thomas of Hanson sa^'s : "I never saw birds so 

 numerous as this year, and in so good condition." (The 

 disappearance of the martins from Hanson has been herein- 

 before noted.) Mr. Charles Curtis of Stoughton, while he 

 cannot find on inquiry that there are any martins left, thinks 

 he never saw so many birds on his farm as in 1 903. ]Mr. Geo. 

 L. L. Allen of Medfield states that birds are plenty there. 



