JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



47 



Me., the doctor discovered a nest and 

 young of the American Redstart 

 (Setophaga ruticilla) in a small beech 

 tree only a few feet from his cottage. 

 The doctor and his family are much 

 interested in the birds, and watched 

 these little warblers with much in- 

 terest. 



One day while the doctor was watch- 

 ing the mother bird hovering her 

 nearly fledged nestlings, he observed 

 a red squirrel sneaking up toward the 

 nest. Instantly the squirrel darted 

 forward and seized the female from 

 the nest, by fastening his sharp teeth 

 into the poor mother bird's head and 

 neck. The doctor hastened to the 

 tree, and shook the squirrel from the 

 tree, but too late to save the bird. 

 The squirrel dropped the bird and 

 scampered off, chuckling to himself 

 and congratulating himself on his nar- 

 row escape. The poor bird fell to the 

 ground too badly bitten to recover. 

 The doctor watched, but hardly ex- 

 pected to see the little red scamp re- 

 turn, but having had a taste of blood, 

 he could not resist his appetite for 

 more. Stealthily he returned and 

 tried to get one of the young from 

 the nest, but the doctor prevented him 

 from doing so. One of the young flut- 

 tered to the ground, and the doctor 

 carried him to a neighboring cottage 

 and placed it where the male bird 

 could find it. 



As the doctor went away the next 

 day, he does not know, but hopes the 

 little ones reached maturity. But be- 

 fore going, he borrowed a shotgun 

 and shot the squirrel, to prevent him 

 fjrom destroying all the small birds 

 that nested about in the grove on the 

 shore of the lake. 



The doctor enjoys seeing the saucy 

 little squirrels running about, but de- 

 cided to punish this saucy little dep- 

 redator. He states he had given up 

 shooting, on the ground that several 

 years ago he shot a red squirrel and 



not killing it, it ran off and hid with 

 its entrails hanging, and he decided 

 this was rather poor sport. He men- 

 tioned having previously seen the red 

 squirrels destroy the eggs and young 

 birds from a nest, and watched the 

 bird tear out the lining of the nest. 

 He also mentions watching a bird, in 

 the latter part of April, with his field 

 glass, which he decided was a Prairie 

 Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris 

 praticola) at so late a date that the 

 grain was springing up. There can be 

 but little doubt that the bird was 

 breeding in the vicinity. 



A BABY VIREO'S BREAKFAST. 



Two or three summers ago I was 

 much interested in the modus operan- 

 di employed by a mother vireo bird 

 (Vireo olivaceus) to get a luncheon 

 into the digestive tract of her young 

 offspring. Though quite likely an old- 

 time proceeding, it was new to me. 



I had found the nestling in the late 

 twilight, peeping forlornly under a 

 tall maple tree. He might have fall- 

 en from the nest and disgraced him- 

 self, or perhaps he had wandered too 

 far in his first day's outing. Be it as 

 it might, the parent birds seemed to 

 think the proper place for birds at 

 that late hour was at home, and, 

 therefore, there they staid. So the 

 foundling was taken into the house, 

 away from the danger of night prowl- 

 ers. With the judicious manipulation 

 of a wooden toothpick, he was enticed 

 into swallowing several flies and mill- 

 ers, which somewhat appeased his 

 hungry calls, and at last he subsided 

 for the night. 



In the morning, he became vocifer- 

 ous again. On going into the garden 

 several cabbage worms graciously dis- 

 closed themselves. I fed them to him 

 in dainty sections, and then perched 

 him on a crab apple tree to see if a 



