248 



Bird - Lore 



greeted the observers with open mouths. 

 The time was now favorable for taking 

 pictures, so the camera was set on a tripod. 

 A fish-line was attached to the shutter re- 

 lease and portrait lens was used. The stop 

 was/:8, and the exposure i-soth of a second. 

 The camera recorded faithfully the bird of 

 the field in its characteristic poses. The 

 conditions for taking the pictures were also 

 good, as the sky was bright, and the parent 

 birds were feeding the young quite frequently. 

 The bill-of-fare was grasshoppers, and it was 

 certainly a bad afternoon for the orthoptera 

 in the vicinity of this nest. The stout mandi- 

 bles of the Sparrows are well adapted for 

 killing grasshoppers. — Thos. A. Taper, 

 Houghton, Mich. 



The Migration of the Martin 



August 27, 1920, a friend called at my 

 house and wanted to know if I would like to 

 see thousands of Pvurple Martins which were 

 congregating on the shore of Lake Winni- 

 squam, about three miles south of here. I 

 visited the place about 5 o'clock that after- 

 noon, and on the electric wires beside a large 

 factory building I counted 176 birds. As 

 there were about 60 such wires that were 

 completely covered with the birds, I feel 

 justified in sajdng that there were over 10,000. 



I visited the place again August 29 and 

 there were apparently double the number 

 that were there on the 27th. Other bird- 

 lovers visited the place the next day and 

 estimated there were 30,000 Purple Martins 

 getting ready for their long flight. Sep- 

 tember I I returned to the place and not 

 one Martin was to be seen. — Blanche D. 

 Sanborn, Laconia, N. H. 



A Redstart Tragedy 



At a summer camp which I have, I make 

 an effort to encourage nesting birds, and this 

 season have had unusually bad luck as 

 nearly every nest has been broken up. Some, 

 I know, probably are destroyed by Crows, 

 but there was an instance recently which I 

 cannot explain: There was a Redstart nest 

 with four half-grown young and at dark one 

 afternoon both birds and young were all 



right, and when I looked at the nest shortly 

 after daylight the next morning, I f oimd that 

 the mother bird was dead on the nest and the 

 young had been pulled out of the nest and 

 killed and were lying on the branches near 

 the nest. The mother's head was picked as 

 if by some other bird. 



There are, of course, Crows, Owls, red 

 squirrels, and Hawks, but it does not seem to 

 me that any one of these could kill the old 

 bird before she could leave the nest, and if 

 they did, I should think they would surely 

 carry her and the young away, or at least 

 throw them out on the grotmd. 



The nest was high enough up so that 

 nothing could reach it from the ground. 

 Can anyone explain this tragedy? — Harry 

 A. Sleeper, Claremont, N. H. 



Wren Attacks Squirrel 



We were much amused and interested one 

 morning recently, while eating breakfast on 

 our porch, to see our little friend the Wren 

 scoop down upon her enemy the gray squirrel 

 who was trying to steal from the feeding- 

 box. Many times did she dart at his head 

 and each time he was compelled to find 

 shelter. She finally succeeded in driving him 

 away entirely while the larger birds looked 

 on, but took no part. — Mrs. Arthur W. 

 Brintnall, Glencoe, Ills. 



A Wisconsin Mockingbird 



On November 16, 1920, when the south- 

 ward migration was almost complete, a Mock- 

 ingbird appeared in our little city and took 

 up winter quarters in the trees and shrubbery 

 of a half-dozen adjoining gardens. This bird 

 remained all winter, feeding mainly on as- 

 paragus berries and the fruit of the Virginia 

 creeper. By February it was willing to feed 

 occasionally on the bittersweet. When the 

 snow thawed enough to leave the ground 

 bare in patches, the bird may have secured 

 some insect food, but the amount must have 

 been very small. 



The winter was imusually mild, so the 

 period of song continued till about December 

 I. The notes, however, were subdued and 

 lacked the brilliance of the summer song. 



