482 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



get them. They thus have much advantage over the swifts 

 and martins, which are believed to be entirely insectivorous. 



Tlie safet}' of birds that nested on the ground, in shrub- 

 bery or on trees depended mainl}^ on the kind of shelter 

 they had. In many cases the mother birds stuck to their 

 posts. Mrs. Emily B. Young watched two robins' nests on 

 Marblehead Neck, — a very exposed situation. One con- 

 tained eggs, the other young. The liirds kept them cov- 

 ered most of the time, and ap})arently no harm was done. 

 Possibl}^ the dead adult robins, viroes and song sparrows 

 that were found died from exposure and starvation in the 

 attempt to shield their young. 



It is of interest to know whether the destruction of birds 

 has been general in other States, and also whether there are 

 martins left in adjacent States to replenish the depleted sup- 

 ply here. Reports received from Pennsylvania to Maine 

 indicate that the mortality among 3'oung birds has been con- 

 sideral)lc in all the middle and northern Atlantic States. 

 Mr. W. H. Brownson, in the "Portland Daily Advertiser," 

 asserts that, of ten or fifteen pairs of martins inhabiting a 

 box in Scarborough, all j)erished excepting one or two of 

 the old birds. The young of the barn swallows also died. 

 A small colony of martins in another part of the same town 

 survived, and later he wrote mc that he had found another 

 colony ali\'e in Westbrook. Mr. Ilerl^ert Moulton of Hiram 

 says nearl3Mill if not all of his young martins died. Mr. 

 Fred Pike of Cornish states that his martins survived the 

 storm and stayed later than usual ; liut the young birds were 

 killed in all the other houses there, and the parent birds left 

 and were not seen again. In one house of alwut twenty 

 pairs the 3'oung in one nest were raised. 



The lesser mortality among the martins in Maine, as com- 

 pared to that in IVIassachusetts, is believed to be due mainly 

 to a lesser rainfall. The average })i-('cii)itation for the month 

 in that State was only 4.41) inches, although that at Bemis, 

 14.(5 inches, was greater than at any other point in New 

 England. No report has been received on the etl'ect of the 

 storm upon birds at licmis. Less than ',] inches of rain fell 

 durinir the month on ncarh' (he entire n(U'tli-eastern half of 



