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



station are fond of doughnuts. Among others she names olive- 

 backed thrushes, which she says prefer doughnuts to any other 

 food; also mjTtle and parula warblers. Hon. Edgar S. Hill of 

 Dudley observed that tanagers and some other species were 

 very fond of cake. This was the only food that he provided 

 that was eaten by them, but they came to the dooryard to get 

 it. The cold, wet season apparently has been very destructive 

 to the young of grouse and other game birds. Some observers 

 report finding only one or two young grouse in a brood. This, 

 following a winter flight of goshawks, which are destructive to 

 grouse, undoubtedly has reduced the number of these birds 

 seriously during the past two seasons. 



A severe storm accompanied by a strong wind and a sudden 

 drop in temperature sometimes kills many birds. Such condi- 

 tions occur more often in the States and provinces north of 

 Massachusetts than here. Mr. Ruthven Deane recalls such an 

 instance ^ which occurred on the Gaspe Peninsula, Quebec, early 

 in June, 1914, after which many warblers were found dead. 

 The temperature did not reach the freezing point at the time, 

 but there was a very heavy fall of rain. This seems to have 

 been a local rather than a widespread calamity, but in 1907 

 conditions in Ottawa and Quebec were much the same as in 

 New England this year, and Rev. G. Eifrig reports - that many 

 warblers and other species succumbed to the untoward condi- 

 tions. Miss Althea Sherman records similar bird destruction at 

 that time in Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota. She asserts that 

 the belt of destruction here was at least 100 miles wide. She 

 refers to this as the year of the "great death," and as a result 

 of her studies and observations believes that millions of birds 

 perished, and that after the catastrophe the number of warblers 

 migrating through that region was reduced to about 2 per cent 

 of their former numbers. After six seasons, they had increased, 

 in 1913, to about 10 per cent.^ Probably the decimation of 

 warbler life the present year is not so severe as at that time, 

 but it seems to have extended over a much wider territory. 

 However, more data are needed to establish its full extent. 



1 Auk, Vol. XXXI., October, 1914, p. 548. 

 s Auk, Vol. XXV., January, 1908, pp. 1-9. 

 s Bird-Lore, Vol. XVII., September-October, 1915, pp. 375-377. 



