No. 4.] DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS. 4H0 



County, and 81 to 18 inches in the south-eastern part of 

 the State. 



F^ven Nunlucliet and Martha's Vineyard received their 

 share, 40 inches being recorded from part of Nantucket. 

 Cold north-west winds prevailed for the month, reaehinn: a 

 maximum velocity of sixty-six miles per hour at Block Island 

 on the 4th. 



Buzzard's Bay froze over so that it was said a man could 

 walk on the ice from New Bedford to Wood's Hole. The 

 ice did not break u\) until March, and navii::ation up the bay 

 was suspended for the winter. It Avas rei)orted that for the 

 first time a man had crossed Wood's Hole on the ice. There 

 was an ice pack much of tli^ time along- the shores of Cape 

 Cod and in Vineyard and Nantucket sounds, Avhich kept the 

 ducks off shore, and isolated Nantucket and Martha's Vine- 

 yard for weeks. 



Earlv in January it became evident that birds were suffer- 

 ing from both cold and hunger. Many birds that remain in 

 New Eno-land for the winter had left the more northern 

 States and crowded into the southern coast recfion of Massa- 

 chusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, where there is 

 usually comparatively little snow and less cold than in the 

 country back from the salt water. 



An o})})ortunity now offered to study the effect of a sub- 

 arctic winter on these birds. Birds are usually quite plenty 

 about my house in Avinter, for they are fed there, as well as 

 at other houses in the neighborhood. About forty juncos 

 and eighteen chickadees were observed near the house the 

 first week in Jaimary. Soon one of the chickadees was seen 

 to be suffering from the cold, and a little later it disappeared. 

 Four fox sparrows had been about the house during Decem- 

 ber ; two had now disappeared, but the others remained, 

 and, though suffering much in the coldest weather, survived 

 the winter. January 4 was very cold. On the 5th my 

 thermometer went to 25° below zero, and 24° to 28° were 

 reported from other parts of the toAvn. January 6 my ther- 

 mometer Avas at 29.5° before daylight, and 40° below was 

 reported from Bourne. 



During these three days nearly half of the chickadees dis- 



