Part L] REPORT OF STATE ORNITHOLOGIST. 91 



birds sought the neighborhood of man for the sake of food. 

 During part of the period of lowest temperature in May the 

 hills and mountains in western Massachusetts were covered 

 with snow; also the trees had no leaves and few insects, and the 

 insect-eating birds could find little food there. They therefore 

 crowded into the valleys where people dwelt. They came to 

 the ground first in the search for insects, because some of the 

 small shrubs leaf out before the trees, and many birds feed 

 largely on leaf-eating insects. Therefore the little bushes with 

 their small leaves held out a hope of food. Birds came to the 

 villages because many of the shade trees leaf out before the 

 trees in the woods, and therefore provide shelter and possibly 

 insects earlier. They came to the ground particularly on the 

 cool mornings because there at such times they were more likely 

 to find insects or other animal food (earthworms) than in the 

 trees. They visited plowed lands, stables, houses and dwell- 

 ings generally for the same reason. They entered buildings for 

 shelter. About houses, barns, stables and manure heaps they 

 found a few maggots, flies, other insects and spiders. They 

 fluttered up the sides of houses seeking flies on the clapboards. 

 Where windows were open they even went into houses and 

 searched plants for plant lice and other insects. Some warblers, 

 sparrows and thrushes came to chicken yards where cheese 

 curds and chick feed had been fed to the chicks. Warblers and 

 tanagers were very commonly seen on plowed grounds, where 

 they followed the plowman to search for the worms, grubs and 

 insects that were thrown up by the plow. Farmers spreading 

 manure in their fields were followed by flocks of warblers looking 

 for worms, maggots, grubs and other forms of animal life found 

 in the manure. It was an almost unheard-of sight to see bright 

 male scarlet tanagers, beautiful redstarts and Blackburnian and 

 magnolia warblers in numbers on plowed lands and manure 

 heaps. 



Mr. Clayton E. Stone of Leominster writes that birds even 

 came and fed on maggots or grubs in forkfuls of manure passed 

 out to them, and alighted for this purpose on the full fork held 

 in his hands. Warblers and tanagers were seen in strawberry 

 beds; also on lawns, where they searched among the grass roots 

 for seeds, earthworms and insects. Numbers of birds sought 



