1903
May 16
(No 2)
weeks. There is no other convenient support for a
nest in the boat house. It seems to me quite evident
that they were unwilling to use the old nest & I suspect
that this is a trait common to most if not all
their kind. If so it is a very curious one for they
are among a very few birds known to me which are
regularly in the habit of rearing two broods the same
season in one nest. I cannot remember an instance
however where the same nest has been used a second
season. I removed the old nest in the house brim at
Ball's Hill early this spring & the birds have another
on the same support now. The pair at the farm have
bred last season & this on a shelf under the eaves
of the barn but just before they built them this
spring the last year nest disappeared. I think
they must have thrown it down. I have frequently
noticed in barn cellars where Phoebes nest every year
several nests in different stages of disintegrations
as if each had been used only one season &
then abandoned.
  I have never known the mosquitos so numerous
here before as they have been the past few days.
They are literally as bad as in the swampy
woods about Lake Umbagog.
  While at Cambridge to-day I heard a Black-throated
Blue Warbler singing in the Garden. There were
also a pair of Goldfinches & a Redstart. I did 
not see the Cat-bird this time but he was there
on the 12th.