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Bird - Lore 



wintered, and never strayed far from the 

 old lane, or the tangles around a chain of 

 small ponds close by. They were always 

 together and part of the time in company of 

 a male Chewink, and their merry whistle 

 was heard even when the snow was deepest, 

 and one wondered where they procured 

 their food. May 2, 1902, I found their 

 nest, the first one known about Norwalk. 

 It was built on the ground in the old lane, 

 and was composed of moss and leaves, in 

 form being very much like an Oven-bird's 

 nest. May 6, the old birds had torn away 

 the top of the nest, leaving the four young 

 exposed, and the next day the young left 

 the nest. 



A number of pairs wintered the past sea- 

 son, but in the same restricted range, and 

 I take them to be the young of the past 

 seasons. This year, 1903, one pair nested 

 near the old site, another pair built early in 

 April, behind a board in the peak of an old 

 barn, which scarce withstood the winter's 

 storms. Unlike the first nest found, this 

 nest was built of hay, ferns, rootlets and 

 feathers and was lined with white horse- 

 hair from the tenant downstairs. The 

 young, four in number, flew May 2. 



During nesting time the old birds sang 

 from daylight till dark, attracting the atten- 

 tion of everybody in the neighborhood. 



When I told the owner of the barn I 

 wished to find the nest, he said, "All right, 

 and if you do you can have the young, 

 too." When told of the birds' worth on his 

 farm, and asked why he would be rid of 

 them, he answered, "The old bird gets 

 on the barn at break of day and whistles so 

 loud he wakes me up, and I cannot go to 

 sleep again, because of him." 



At this time, May 11, the family is still 

 together, and find a welcome home behind 

 the old barn. — Wilbur F. Smith, South 

 Norijualk, Connecticut. 



Mortality Among Birds in June 



From the reports of a number of corre- 

 spondents we quote the following observa- 

 tions in regard to the mortality among 

 young birds in June last, incident to the 

 prolonged rains and unseasonable weather: 



Mr. William R. Lord writes from Rock- 

 land, Massachusetts: "I wonder if anyone 

 has reported to you the fact that the extra- 

 ordinary prolonged cold weather in June 

 resulted in the death of all, so far as we 

 can learn, of the young of the Martins 

 and Barn Swallows in the region of Ply- 

 mouth county, Massachusetts? and, what 

 is more to be regretted, the death of 

 many of the adult Martins, due to starva- 

 tion. The latter have been taken from 

 their boxes and picked up in the fields 

 about my own town, Rockland, and about 

 Hanover. 



"The cold weather seems not only to have 

 numbed the insects so they could not fly, 

 but, at last, to have killed them outright. 

 Farmers report no grasshoppers or crickets in 

 their mown fields and speak of it as a 

 strange experience. If these insects have been 

 killed, the smaller and more aerial species 

 must have suffered more severely. One man 

 reports twenty-one dead Martins, young 

 and old, and a number report the same 

 facts as of Martins and speak of the dead 

 young of the Barn Swallows, giving definite 

 numbers of the latter. 



"In general, it has been a hard year on 

 birds. Dry weather preceded the cold, and 

 later many nests containing young were 

 blown down and some young were chilled, 

 fell and perished. I wonder if this experi- 

 ence is a wide one? If so, it will be felt 

 next year. 



"I should say also that the Barn Swal- 

 lows, Martins and Chimney Swifts disap- 

 peared from their haunts about here about 

 the time the dead were found." 



Mr. Henry Hales writes from Ridgewood, 

 New Jersey, under date of June 20: "My 

 old barn has been the breeding-place for a 

 lot of Barn Swallows every year since I 

 have lived here and long before. Every 

 summer quite a colony come to it and to 

 another barn across the bay. Seeing this 

 year only a solitary pair, it was supposed the 

 birds' absence was due to Cats, Squirrels 

 or House Sparrows ; but, to my astonishment, 

 I find the same conditions all through the 

 country about here. I sometimes travel 

 twenty miles a day and see only two or 

 three birds." 



