1903.
May 27
(No 2)
both heard and saw a Red Squirrel on the roof. He stayed
there a long time & made a great noise whenever he jumped
on the tin covering. Still earlier and sometime before day break
I heard what I took to be a Rat gnawing at intervals.
At breakfast time I looked in the Robin's nest & found
all four of the young dead and still bleeding profusely from
numerous fresh wounds. These were of a singular character.
None of the flesh had been removed, there were no deep
cuts nor holes and the heads, eyes etc were intact but
the skin over the greater part of each naken little body
had been stripped off. Apparently the poor little things
had bled to death from these surface injuries. Whether
this wanton cruelty had been committed by the creature
I heard gnawing or by the Red Squirrel I am of course
unable to say. The most mysterious part of the whole 
affair is that the mother Robin made no outcry. Had
she done so I must have heard her for the nest was
only a few feet from my open window & I slept
poorly during the night & was wide awake after daybreak.
  Forbush found a Hairy Woodpecker's nest with young on the 25th.
It is in the very last place where I should have looked for
one - at the edge of Bensen's cow pasture on the east border
of the maple swamp behind the wood shed at Pine Park.
The tree stands a little outside the edge of the Swamp
on low ground. It is a red maple completely covered
with foliage but rather sickly-looking. The hole, a
small neat one, enters the main trunk on the north
side about 8 feet above the ground & just below a 
stout dead branch. I saw one of the birds go to the 
nest twice on the evening of the 25th. She came flying