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Dear Listener— Tour West Medford corre- 

 spondent, "L. C," who saw a hermit 

 thrush on the vine over the porch of the 

 house in the early forenoon of Jan. 24, will 

 be Interested to learn that another bird 

 observer saw, a hermit thrush on Jan. 21, in 

 Olmsted Park. He was seen as he came 

 on the wing to one of the little ponds, the 

 water of which Iceeps open during the 

 severest cold— sleek, quick of motion, piek- 

 infr at the water's edge, running on the 

 snow, lifting the tail when stopping or 

 perching on a nearby bough, silent but as 

 animated as a hermit of the summer time 

 in the Northern forests; the bird, pre- 

 sumably the same I had seen also on Dec. 

 19 and 28 in the same vicinity. We cer- 

 tainly have hermit thrushes wintering with 

 us this severe season of 1008-1004. It is the 

 more remarkable since careful observation 

 of bird life in and about Boston during the 

 last four winters has not before placed in 

 my record the hermit thrush. This ice- 

 bound season has been chosen by the 

 species, therefore, to further establish Mr. 

 William Brewster's statement, "Found sev- 

 eral times in midwinter, near Boston." 

 Other records of mine in December were; 

 Stoneham, Bear Hill, Dec. 5; Maiden, Pine 

 Banks Park, Dec. 12; Longwood. Riverway 

 Park, Dec. 30. 



Your readers m2y also be Interested to 

 know that there Is one other species whose 

 presence with us may be even more sur- 

 prl.sing, the mockingbird. I have seen one 

 in the same corner of Jamaica Park, Jan. 

 0, 7, 12, 13 and 23. It has, therefore, safely 

 passed through nights of 12° to 15° below 

 zero. Abundance of food Is present in the 

 berries remaining upon the shrubs. It is 

 asked. Is not this an escaped cage bird? It 

 may be answered, would such a one sur- 

 vive the extreme cold of this month? Other 

 mockingbird records, 1002 and W03, have 

 been: Melrose. Oct. 16, 1002; Duxbury, Dec. 

 20, 1002, and June 18. 100.3, and, upon reli- 

 al3le authority, continuously resident from 

 Oct. 5 to June IS (later knowledge of it is 

 not mine) on a rather bleak point of land 

 jutting out Into the marshes; the Arbor- 

 etum, 1003, Feb. 26 and 27, Marclj 2 and 0, 

 April 21, singing, and seen by others re- 

 peatedly upon intervening and later dates; 

 Nahant, Deo. 28, 1003. It seems hardly 

 possible that these five mockingbirds were 

 all escaped birds. On the other hand, it 

 seems quite probable that most ot them 

 were never caged. ISxcept in the case of 

 the Duxbury bird, to which a friend con- 

 ducted me, I came upon the birds unex- 

 pectedly in my walks. It would seem a 

 rare experience If, under these circum- 

 stances, a single observer lias fallen in 

 with escaped birds only. The pleasant in- ' 

 ferenco, which fairly may be drawn, is 

 that the mockingbird Is becoming nioia 

 present with us than ten years ago. When 

 Mr. • Brewster appended this one of his 

 many valuable footnotes to Mlnot's "Land 

 Birds," fine or two specimens have been 

 taken In Massachusetts In winter 



The South and the North are-^lt to- 

 gether In Jamaica Park this winter, for in 

 close proximity to the mockingbird may be 

 seen a flock of pine grosbeaks feeding con- 

 tentedly on the berries and expressing the 

 pleasure of companionship In soft, sweet 

 tones, as they move through the shrubbery 

 Not far distant on Jan. 33 was seen another 

 bird of the North, a snow bunting, upon the 

 snowy roadway of the park, where he was 

 intently occupied in picking up his noonday 

 meal, merely avoiding the sleighs as they 

 passed, and heeding them scarcely more 

 than a liouse sparrow would. The dense 

 fog of the morning no doubt gave him 

 greater courage, and the com.plete envelop- 

 ment of the landscape in snow and lee, as 

 well as fog, must have been as congenial to 

 him as would be Nahant or Ipswich, it 



was my first record of a snowflake in the 

 park, and It is to be credited to Brookllne 

 It may be mentioned that a flock of robins 

 numbering fifteen or more Is frequenting 

 ! the Arboretum, and that on Jan. 11 and 12 

 a Wilson's snipe made a brief visit there, 

 finding the shallow run of water over un- 

 frozen ground at the north gate adapted to 

 the use of his long bill in probing for neces- 

 sary food. H. -vi^. 

 Boston, Jan. 28. I4^^c^ Iv- W-u^— - 

 Last Sunday morning, it will be remem- 

 bered, was quite warm and pleasant— one of 

 the few days of the month of which as 

 much can 'be said— and Mr. G. A. Spooner 

 and a friend saw in Franklin Park a flock 

 of as many as twenty-flve robins, a dozen 

 pine grosbeaks, all females, some downy 

 woodpeckers, male and female, chickadees, 

 juncos and bluejayg. The woods Seem to 

 be full of them, and a bright day 'Will bring 

 some of them out from their refuges 



u^-Cr^ a^.icl^oif 



