96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [P. D. 4. 



this is the general region from which we actually have reports 

 of mortality among the birds. It is possible, however, that in 

 many parts of this great tract there was little mortality, as 

 temperatm-e, cloudiness and precipitation varied as always in 

 different sections of the region. The average rainfall for the 

 month over a greater part of it was not far from 2 inches, but 

 there were large tracts where it equaled 4 inches, and at least 

 two where it reached 6 inches. The heaviest rainfall came in 

 States from which we have reports of bird mortality. It is 

 quite possible that birds were destroj-ed in the region west of 

 Michigan, where the temperature was not quite so low, but the 

 probability is that the difference in temperature made condi- 

 tions easier for them there. Nothing has been heard of any 

 bird catastrophe in the south, and little is known about the 

 effect of the backward spring in Canada, where it may have 

 been very destructive to bird life. The great catastrophe, then, 

 seems to have been confined mainly to a large part of a tract 

 about 1,000 miles in width, extending from Pennsylvania and 

 Michigan north into Canada; but just how far, no one knows. 

 The enemies of birds, having considerable difficulty in finding 

 other food, concentrated largely on the starving birds, which 

 could be easily captiu-ed. Almost everywhere cats were re- 

 ported as killing considerable numbers. One observer affirms 

 that a cat brought in four birds in one day; others assert that 

 their cats brought in birds every day; another records that one 

 cat brought in sixteen warblers. Squirrels are reported as lack- 

 ing food and very thin, and as raiding the nests of birds and 

 destroying their eggs and young. Mr. C. A. Clark of Lynn 

 observed that one gray squirrel having an open nest in a tree 

 removed her young to -a hollow tree, apparently to protect them 

 from the cold and rain. In western Massachusetts many 

 mother birds were reported to have died on their nests. Along 

 the coast, where the nests of robins were exposed to driving 

 storms, very few young robins survived. Many birds which 

 built nests early in the season were unable to hatch their eggs 

 because of the severe storms and cold weather, or because the 

 eggs were infertile. As there were no leaves upon the trees, eggs 

 and young were exposed not only to the storms but also to the 

 attacks of jays and crows, which, unable to find sufficient insect 



