i66 



Bird -Lore 



•continuing a weeic was the cause of the 

 death of one hundred and fifty young and 

 several old birds. Did the old birds know 

 that it would be too late to rebuild and rear 

 broods ? None of them attempted this. 

 Yet this year's misfortune did not deter 

 them from hatching second broods, although 

 only nineteen days earlier than last year's 

 mishap. 



"At the bird-house of John Reese, two 

 miles west of town, forty-five dead young 

 were found, and he told me this morning 

 "that he had plenty of birds just coming out. 

 Joseph Patton, who bought a Martin house 

 of me in 1902, took fifteen dead birds out of 

 his box on June 15, and found seven others 

 still living. Amos Allison, three miles 

 east of here, had a colony in an old box 

 near his old residence, which he wished to 

 divide by inducing some of the birds to 

 come to an elegant box of forty rooms he 

 -erected near his new residence, some hun- 

 dreds of yards from the old. None of the 

 birds built in the new box until after the 

 a-ain, when the whole colony moved to his 

 new box, built nests and raised young. 



"All other boxes in use in this town, 

 . which I have been able to see lately, still 

 -contain young birds all apparently about 

 the same age as those at my own houses. 

 All of which goes to show that where the 

 old birds escaped death, pretty generally, 

 ■second broods were hatched." 



Under date of September 9, Mr. Jacobs 

 adds: "Since sending my observations on 

 the Martins I have taken the final notes for 

 the fall, and present them herewith: 



"August 27. — Have watched the birds 

 -come in evenings and go out mornings, as 

 usual, until August 24, when I was called 

 away to Pittsburg, returning to-night. 

 The birds came home, but my father did not 

 Icnow in what numbers. 



"August 28. — The morning birds were 

 away by daylight, unnoticed. In the even- 

 ing about fifty birds came, but only a few 

 entered the houses for the night. 



"August 29. — In the morning, one old 

 male was noted about 9 o'clock soaring over 

 the town. 



" This was the last seen of the birds here 

 this fall." 



Economic Value of Game Birds 



A despatch from Cheyenne, Wyo., to the 

 New York "Herald" says: 



"The devastation of the ranges along the 

 Big Laramie and North Platte rivers by vast 

 swarms of grasshoppers can be traced di- 

 rectly to the killing of the Sage Chickens in 

 those districts. 



"The Chickens have been practically ex- 

 terminated, and their disappearance was fol- 

 lowed promptly by the appearance of the 

 grasshoppers. 



"The insects have done incalculable dam-' 

 age during the last three years, and the 

 ranchmen, realizing the cause of the inva- 

 sion, are considering plans for propagating 

 Sage Chickens and reestablishing them on 

 the range. 



"The next Legislature will be asked to 

 pass a law protecting Chickens at all times. 

 Their increase is to be encouraged in every 

 way. Other parts of the state where 

 Chickens are becoming scarce are begin- 

 ning to learn the same lesson. 



" Everywhere Chickens are scarcer this year 

 than ever before, and grasshoppers are more 

 plentiful. Sage Chickens consume enor- 

 mous quantities of insects, and there is little 

 doubt that within a year they will be 

 protected." 



Red Crossbills in New Jersey, in July 



In the northern part of Somerset county, 

 N. J., where I was spending my vacation 

 this summer, I had the pleasure of finding 

 a flock of six Crossbills. They were first 

 observed on July 19, around some cedar 

 trees which flanked both sides of a roadway. 

 They were very tame, and I was able to sit 

 down within six feet of them and watch 

 them. Two were males, showing quite a 

 quantity of red in their plumage. When 

 startled they would fly a short distance away, 

 uttering twittering notes as they flew. 



About an hour after I first saw them, I 

 went to look for them again and found them 

 in exactly the same trees. Early the next 

 morning they were in the same neighbor- 

 hood, but during the day they disappeared 

 and were not seen again. — George E. Hix, 

 Neiju York, N. T. 



