Vermont Botanical and Bird Club 15 



has been cut off, the starved perishing germ leaves but little beside the 

 outer covering. 



Now the question, "Why does the Gilliflower apple fail to mature 

 its seeds?" almost answers itself, and in these words; the veins carry- 

 ing nourishment to the growing germ break down, the needed supply 

 is cut off, the half grown seed is starved and perishes. 



WINTER BIRDS SCARCE IN VERMONT. 



George L. Kirk. 



For some reason which the writer has not been able to determine 

 winter birds have been unusually scarce in the vicinity of Rutland 

 during the winter of 1914-15. This is true of both the permanent 

 residents and winter visitants. It is true that there was deep snow 

 only for two short periods and beechnuts, which furnish food for some 

 species, were unusually plentiful in the fall of 1914. This would 

 naturally tend to cause the birds to be well distributed over the country 

 and not restricted to certain feeding areas. Reports from other ob- 

 servers indicate that the scarcity of bird life during January and Feb- 

 ruary was noticed in other parts of the state. 



Duane E. Kent of Rutland, whose daily duties take him frequently 

 into Addison county, where there is much flat country in which are 

 abundant crops of Chenopodium and other free seeders, which lift 

 their heads well above the snow, did not find that this condition ob- 

 tained in the district cited. He saw many tree sparrows and snow 

 buntings, particularly in the town of Whiting, having once observed 

 a flock of the latter which he estimated to contain over a thousand 

 birds. In Ripton he observed numerous pine siskins on nearly every 

 trip made. 



The writer, to show the relative abundance or scarcity of the 

 various species seen about Rutland in the winter, gives below a list of 

 the number of birds recorded on various trips afield. These walks 

 were taken solely with the purpose of observing bird and mammal life. 

 As the weather was usually cold I was usually moving slowly along, 

 not sitting quietly as one would do to study birdlife in the summer. 

 The total number of birds seen in the 74 hours consumed by the trips 

 was 138, or a few less than two to the hour. The total number of miles 

 covered by the trips was 106 so that the average number of birds per 

 mile was very small. Had it not been for the 25 chickadees found liv- 



