Part I.] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 89 



oped. Shadbushes are still in full bloom. Some flowers of late April and 

 early May are yet in blossom. Dandelions, Houstonias and five-fingers 

 spangle the fields. Some violets are blossoming and a very few polygalas. 

 A few wild cherries are in bloom, and some apple trees are just begin- 

 ning to flower. The migration of warblers is still going on. The birds 

 are scattered through the woods and orchards, but I have not yet seen 

 a blackpoll warbler, though the migration season seems to have passed 

 its height. 



The following notes were taken June 2 at Mattapoisett : — 



Many of the oaks and other woodland trees seem just beginning to put 

 out leaves, while yesterday at Dudley and Webster there were many 

 deciduous woods where there was not foliage enough to hide the limbs. 

 This was true also in Bristol County and Pawtucket, Rhode Island, New 

 Bedford and Wareham, Massachusetts. Birches showed considerable 

 leafage, but some of the elms were just beginning to open their buds, and 

 the swamp maples were almost bare, while many oaks and chestnuts still 

 appeared as bare as in winter. On the whole, the foliage appeared hardly 

 as far advanced as it often does on May 15. 



On June 5 the Lasell students were not able to have their 

 daisy chain, as there were no flowers, and it was not until the 

 middle of June that the wild flowers appeared as they ordinarily 

 do in the latter part of May. There was a similar delay in the 

 appearance of insects. Eggs of insects failed to hatch at their 

 usual time, but apparently the cold weather did not destroy 

 them. With the exception of tent caterpillars and a few others, 

 insects appeared in their full, normal numbers later in the sea- 

 son. A few birds appeared earlier than normally, but the main 

 flight of insect-eating birds came a week or ten days later than 

 usual. Even then the birds came too soon, for their insect food 

 was not ready for them. Many of the early swallows and mar- 

 tins apparently succumbed to the cold storms which came after 

 the birds arrived. Several observers report finding dead martins 

 and swallows in nesting boxes. The destruction of martins and 

 swallows appeared to be greatest in the southeasterly parts of 

 the State, on Cape Cod and contiguous to it, where storms 

 with high winds prevailed. In some localities practically all the 

 tree swallows disappeared, as well as the martins. This was not 

 always the case, however. At Wareham the swallows nesting 

 in my experimental boxes were decimated more or less by the 

 early storms. Three were found dead in the boxes, and the 



