Notes from Field and Study 



279 



taken from her nest in Townsend were seen 

 by Mr. M. Abbott Frazar, the well-known 

 taxidermist of Boston. Mr. Frazar, to whom 

 I am indebted for this record, tells me that 

 he sent one of these eggs by mail to Mr. 

 William Brewster, but that it was broken in 



transit. Mr. Brewster kept the fragments 

 of the egg but never published the record. 

 Mr. Frazar cannot now recall the date of the 

 taking of the eggs of the Townsend bird. — 

 J. A. Farley, Boston, Mass. 



THE SEASON 



Edited by J. T. NICHOLS 



XXXIII. June 15 to August 15, 1922 



Boston Region. — The passing summer 

 has been cool in the main, and the precipi- 

 tation has been far above normal, the rain 

 falling in almost daily deluging showers. The 

 plentiful supply of water has caused a luxu- 

 riance of vegetation; the lawns and trees are 

 beautifully green and the roadsides are 

 banked with rank growth, many species of 

 plants (e.g. ^vild lettuce, L. spicata) having 

 attained phenomenal height. The excess of 

 rain was unfavorable to man}' birds; nestlings 

 in exposed nests were either drowned by the 

 rain or killed by violent hail-storms; adults, 

 also, of certain species suffered, the Chimney 

 Swift, for example, because their feeding 

 habits render them especially liable to 

 starvation during prolonged stormy weather 

 on account of the beating down from the air 

 of all their insect food. Other birds of 

 similar but clearly not identical feeding habits 

 were not noticeably affected, e.g.. Barn 

 Swallows and Kingbirds are at the present 

 time even more numerous than usual. 



Nesting acti\aties appeared to be com- 

 pleted early this year, hastened, perhaps, by 

 the mortality of weU-grown nestlings of 

 single-brooded birds. The notes of nocturnal 

 migrants were heard soon after the middle 

 of July, very early for this region, and some 

 species of migrating shore-birds arrived in 

 numbers at dates not long after the earliest 

 records of their appearance here. Lawrence 

 B. Fletcher furnishes an interesting list of 

 birds seen on or near the seacoast at Ips\\'ich, 

 Mass., on July 29, including Common Tern, 

 Dowitcher, both species of Yellowlegs, 

 Spotted, Least, Semipalmated and Pectoral 

 Sandpipers, Semipalmated Plover, Marsh 

 Hawk, and Long-eared Owl. 



The most prominent departure from nor- 

 mal in the distribution of local breeding birds 

 is the marked increase in the number of 

 Hermit Thrushes in the country to the west- 

 ward of Boston. Three years ago the increase 

 was noticeable and was reported in these 

 pages, but since then this Thrush has con- 

 tinued to increase, till now it is a regular and 

 not uncommon summer resident here. 

 Arthur J. Parker reports the bird as 'numer- 

 ous' in Lincoln, Mass. 



E. W. Forbush, in his 'Items of Interest,' 

 XVII, August 16, mentions both species of 

 Crossbills in northern Maine and New 

 Hampshire and gives the advice, "Look out 

 for Crossbills; especially where spruces grow." 



The New England Bird-Banding Asso- 

 ciation, formed last winter, with head- 

 quarters in Boston, has made rapid advance 

 in growth and has accomplished definite 

 results in trapping, banding, and re-trapping 

 birds. Many problems can be solved by this 

 fascinating method of bird-study only after 

 long and patient experimentation, but cer- 

 tain facts have already been proved since the 

 recent discovery by S. Prentiss Baldwin of 

 the value of the trap in banding birds. 

 Lawrence B. Fletcher, treasurer of the 

 Association, reports the record of a Chipping 

 Sparrow who entered his trap nine times in 

 ten days, three times on the same day, a 

 record which illustrated that trapping is a 

 method of taming birds. Similarly, a male 

 Red-wdnged Blackbird, trapped and banded 

 on August 5, returned the following day 

 accompanied by an adult female and four 

 yovmg, all of which entered the trap and were 

 banded. I am indebted also to Mr. Fletcher 

 for the history of an immature Black-crowmed 



