152 Bird -Lore 



holes nearly or quite to the foot of the vertical part of the bank, while they 

 were also present on one or both sides of several of the holes. Usually 

 there were five of them, from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch apart 

 and perfectly parallel even where they followed somewhat wavy courses, but 

 in places only two or three could be distinctly traced. Most of them looked 

 rather fresh but some had become much obscured by the action of the 

 weather. Quite evidently some animal with sharp -pointed claws had made 

 them in climbing to, descending from, or clinging just below, the holes. 

 At first I suspected the creature to have been a cat, for I remembered to 

 have seen, last summer, a large black cat perched on a narrow shelf of a 

 sand -bank at Concord, striking at the anxious and excited Swallows as they 

 darted close about her. A little reflection convinced me, however, that no 

 cat would be likely to break up so large a breeding colony as this. I there- 

 fore descended to the river bank, hoping to find the solution of the mystery 

 there. Nor was I disappointed, for the entire expanse of smooth, wet sand 

 along the water's edge was thickly covered with mink tracks. They were 

 of various ages, from perfectly fresh -looking imprints that clearly showed the 

 marks of the animal's toe-pads and even claws to dim impressions blurred 

 by wind and rain. As nearly as I could judge all the tracks must have been 

 made by a single mink, or, if by more than one, at least by animals of nearly 

 the same size and age. They extended back from the water as far as the 

 sand was sufficiently loose to enable them to be traced. 



I next looked for remains of the birds. Those of at least six Swallows 

 were quickly discovered scattered over the sandy flat near the edge of the 

 water, while further back, in a crevice behind a huge clod of turf which 

 had fallen from the bank above, were those of at least as many more. In 

 most instances they consisted merely of piles of feathers, with perhaps the 

 terminal joint of a wing, but from beneath the clod I took the entire head, 

 wings and feet of one Swallow still joined together by skin and cleanly 

 picked bones (including the sternum) and the wings, bill and one leg of 

 another similarly connected by skin but with all the bones (save those of 

 the wing and leg) missing. The two birds last mentioned were adults, but 

 all the other remains were unmistakably those of young, well-grown and 

 covered with sprouting feathers of the first or natal plumage. 



The space beneath the clod, although wide and deep, was nowhere 

 more than four or five inches in height. Hence it could scarce have ad- 

 mitted any animal larger than a mink. That one or more of these blood- 

 thirsty creatures had feasted long and sumptuously on the unfortunate Swal- 

 lows, no doubt eating on the spot or carrying off to more distant retreats 

 practically all the young as well as at least a few of their parents, seems evi- 

 dent from the circumstantial evidence above recorded. It is, indeed, sad to 

 reflect that such tragedies must be of not infrequent occurrence in nature, 

 and humiliating that we are so nearly powerless to foresee and prevent them. 



