No. 4.] RErORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 207 



unless tliey were protected in such a way that mice could 

 not get at them. These mice are exi)ert climbers, and fre- 

 quently drive birds ont of their nests in hollow trees and 

 seize birds' domiciles for their own use. Mr. Walton finds 

 that practically all snakes eat birds and believes that he has 

 observed that after winters unfavorable for snakes birds in- 

 crease, but when the snakes pass the winter well, birds de- 

 crease the next year. All observing persons will agree that 

 the larger snakes are destructive to young birds. 



Mr. A. L. Wood of Wellesley, Mass., writes that squirrels 

 have destroyed the young and broken up the nests of the 

 scarlet tanagers, have driven away the bluebirds from the 

 Wellesley College grounds, and that the blue jay is about 

 the only bird that is hardy enough to hold its own against 

 them. He sends a newspaper clipping which states that a 

 large gray squirrel climbed to the top of a bird house on 

 Washington Street and took out the eggs and ate them, re- 

 gardless of the anxious birds that were trying to drive him 

 away. 



Mr. George F. Deroo of Melrose Highlands writes that a 

 gray squirrel there is known to have eaten the young of a 

 pair of scarlet tanagers, broken up the nest of a pair of blue 

 jays and broken the eggs, just about ready to hatch, of a 

 red-eyed vireo. Squirrels and crows often are very destruc- 

 tive to the eggs and young of small birds. 



Mr. Robert N". Lester of Cambridge states that he has seen 

 on the grounds of a public institution, where no shooting is 

 allowed, a crow taking the young of a small bird from the 

 nest; also he says he has seen a crow take the pigeon eggs 

 from a nest over the front door of the Children's Hospital, 

 Llunting-ton Avenue, Boston, in spite of efforts of several of 

 its companions to get them away. He states that he has seen 

 crows taking eggs in Boston Common and on the Harvard 

 College grounds, Cambridge. He states that a friend of his 

 in Cambridge saw a crow attempting to take a young robin 

 from a nest close to the house. This is a common habit 

 among crows. 



