No. 4.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 251 



1912. The organism of the disease was identified by Dr. 

 Tvzzer of the Harvard Medical School. This disease mani- 

 fests itself in a white diarrhcea which when introduced among 

 poultry destroys turkeys and young chickens. It is, no doubt, 

 distributed widely among poultry yards by the sparrow. 



Mr. J. F. Melius of Wellesley, whose success in attracting 

 birds was mentioned in my last report, has been unable to 

 secure purple martins, but has lured to his place an addi- 

 tional pair of tree swallows each year for three years, which 

 have nested on his premises. Many bluebirds have been 

 reared in the bird houses. He plants sunflowers for the 

 nuthatches, chickadees and goldfinches, and has counted as 

 many as 70 goldfinches about the place at once, j^otwith- 

 standing the general scarcity of birds in 1012 he had more 

 birds than ever before, including *a scarlet tanager which is 

 the first that has come to his place. He attributes much of 

 his success in attracting native birds to his efforts in destroy- 

 ing English sparrows. He killed 54 sparrows in 1909, 180 

 in 1910, 86 in 1911 and 95" in 1912, or 415 in four years. 

 By ISTovember, 1913, he had killed 94 more, mostly with a 

 22-caliber rifle. He made a trap cage similar to that illus- 

 trated in my annual report for 1911, and lent it to a friend 

 who caught several hundred sparrows in it. He has planted 

 a weeping Russian mulberry and other plants to attract the 

 birds. On 'Nov. 9, 1913, he writes, " The nuthatches have 

 been coming to my feed boxes all summer, using the sun- 

 flower seed that I keep in it all the time ; and the bath, which 

 is only 13 by 15 inches, has been used by birds all summer." 

 He counted, one afternoon, 35 field sparrows and " ground 

 sparrows " that were washing at the bath, a few at a time, and 

 16 bluebirds, all of which were in sight and were using the 

 bath from time to time. Goldfinches and rose-breasted gros- 

 beaks also have used the bath or the feed box in which he 

 keeps sunflower seed, hemp seed and millet. He puts out 

 cracker crumbs every day for the native sparrows, and they 

 come regularly to get them, sometimes eating two or three 

 crackers a day. As many as 75 have been seen at one time. 



He finds that the cat is now the greatest enemy of the birds. 

 In some houses in his neighborhood two cats are kept, in 



