Vermont Bird Club 17 



I still have some chickadees left but they are considerably re- 

 duced in number. I have lost every one of my tame birds and have 

 not the heart to tame any more while the murderous creature is about. 



The English sparrow seems to have a perfect terror of the shrike 

 and they usually leave in a body as soon as one appears. After the 

 departure of the sparrows is the first indication I have of the presence 

 of the shrike. Sometimes they remain away all winter. This year 

 they were gone for more than a month and have now returned not much 

 reduced in number. 



If the sparrows have an alarm signal I have never been able to 

 discover it but they evidently have no difficulty in interpreting the 

 chickadee signal and exhibit the greatest terror when they hear it. 



I have not seen a nuthatch this winter and I have an idea that 

 the nuthatch, perhaps, suffers more from the shrike than almost any 

 other bird. I have no positive evidence to that effect but it has in- 

 variably happened that whenever a shrike has joined my bird family, 

 I have lost every nuthatch. I can readily understand that the nut- 

 hatch would be particularly helpless in the presence of a shrike if 

 once discovered for the nuthatch is a very slow motioned bird and not 

 nearly so alert and wide awake as the chickadee. The sparrow's policy 

 of running away seems to be a wise one but I have seen no evidence 

 of any such tendency in either the chickadee or the nuthatch. After 

 the most exciting encounter the chickadee will come to the board and 

 eat as if nothing had happened. 



NESTING OF JUNCOS IN BRATTLEBORO. 

 Harry L. Piper, Brattleboro, Vt. 



Last spring I found five pairs of Juncos, Junco hyemalis, nesting on 

 one hill just outside of Brattleboro. The summit of the hill is 

 about 800 feet above sea level and all the nests were between 600 and 

 700 feet. I failed to find nests on adjoining hills of the same altitude 

 although I did find young juncos in nestling plumage on Governors 

 Mountain in Guilford, six miles to the west, at an altitude of 900 

 feet. This mountain is about 1,500 feet in altitude and it is possible 

 that the juncos were hatched at a higher level and came down the 

 slope after leaving the nest. They are known to breed on Wantastiquet 

 Mountain, across the Connecticut River from Brattleboro, 1,354 feet 

 high. The general level above which they have been regularly recorded 

 in this vicinity is 1,000 feet. 



I have two suggestions to make in explanatioa of the unusual 

 number of nests at the low level and would like to hear from other 



