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Scarcity of Bluebirds in Missouri 



Dear Sir: Unfortunately I have again to 

 report a great scarcity of Bluebirds nearly 

 throughout Missouri this summer. Cruel 

 March weather killed them after their return 

 from winter quarters. The winter itself was 

 not unusually cold, but it brought us more 

 snow than ordinarily. From February 18 to 

 26 we had fine warm weather, and this warm 

 spell brought the majority of Bluebirds back 

 to their breeding places in Missouri. On Feb- 

 ruary 26 it snowed from sunrise to sunset, 

 and when it ceased, thirteen inches of heavy 

 snow covered the ground. On the following 

 morning the temperature was down to twenty 

 degrees, and from that day to the end of 

 March winter weather continued, with ice 

 and snow and very few mild days; in fact, 

 Missouri had the worst March in its history. 

 The average mean temperature of thirty- 

 three degrees was ten degrees below the 

 lowest in thirty years; the total snowfall was 

 seventeen and one-half inches. Snow fell 

 on eleven days, rain and snow fell on twenty - 

 •our days, with a total precipitation of four 

 and one-half inches. There were really only 

 three cloudless days in the whole month, a 

 most extraordinary condition for Missouri 

 where the clear days by far outnumber the 

 cloudy ones in all seasons. 



The scarcity of Bluebirds was apparent 

 as soon as the weather had become warm in 

 early April, and on my visits to seventeen 

 counties in western Missouri, the smallness 

 of the number of Bluebirds observed struck 

 me with surprise. It was surmised that they 

 had succumbed to the adversity of the 

 weather after their arrival, but proof was 

 lacking until reports came in, showing that 

 they had starved and frozen to death in their 

 retreats Mr. Julius T. Volkman found on 

 April 29, within ten minutes' walk of his 

 house in Webster Groves, a suburb of St. 

 Louis, eight dead Bluebirds in one tree hole, 

 six in another, and nine in a hollow tele- 

 phone post. They were mostly females. 

 There can now be but little doubt that the 

 same fate befell the majority of Bluebirds in 



all parts of the state, and possibly also in 

 adjoining parts of other states. — O. Wid- 

 mann, St. Louis, Mo. 



Feeding Birds in Winter 



Under the subject of ' Feeding Birds in 

 Winter ' come two other subjects of even 

 greater interest to the bird lovers, namely, 

 ' The Taming of Birds ' and ' The Chang- 

 ing of Both their Habits and Food.' 



The winter of 1903-1904 was an ex- 

 ceptionally hard winter for the birds; for 

 this reason I thought it my duty to set a 



DOWNY WOODPECKER 



lunch-counter for the feathered tribe. I 

 tacked suet to the trunk of a big black wal- 

 nut tree that grew fifteen feet from my win- 

 dow, and it was not long before the birds 

 began to patronize it. They seemed to tell 

 all the birds in the neighborhood of their 

 happy discovery, for many birds appeared 

 that I had never seen around the house 

 before this time. 



Every day the Downy and Hairy Wood- 

 peckers, Red- and White-breasted Nut- 

 hatches, Chickadees, Brown Creepers, and 

 Blue Jays came to eat the suet, while the 

 Juncos and an occasional English Sparrow 



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