10 
appears to have bred well in the western half of the State 
in 1904, and has done well locally in the eastern counties. 
Many dead blue jays were found during the winter, and in 
some sections jays, crows and chickadees seem to have been 
much reduced in numbers, but this is by no means universal. 
I found jays somewhat reduced in Wareham, but crows had 
increased. Both crows and jays were considerably reduced 
in Concord, while chickadees were not so common as usual 
in either place. Some reports from southeastern Massa- 
chusetts indicate a scarcity of flickers and meadow larks, 
but this is not noticed elsewhere. Screech owls suffered 
severely, and were driven by stress of weather into barns 
and dove cotes, where they fed on mice and doves. Mr. 
A. M. Frazar, the Boston taxidermist, informs me that he 
had about forty of these birds brought to him, most of which 
had been taken in dove cotes. Some were picked up dead. 
He also received about twenty Acadian or saw-whet owls, 
that were found dead either in the streets of Boston or in 
the country towns. Many observers report a recent scar- 
city of screech owls, while others report them as numerous. 
My own notes show them to have been rather rare in 1904 
where in 1903 they were quite common. Superintendent 
Charles P. Price of the Middlesex Fells Reservation found 
several barred owls apparently frozen to death during the 
winter; they were fat, and therefore had not starved. 
Evidently the bob-white suffered more than any other bird 
from the hard winter of 1903-04; but, as many have been 
introduced since by the Massachusetts Fish and Game Pro- 
tective Association, and others were carried through the win- 
ter by feeding, there are birds enough now to restock the 
State, if they can be protected. 1 
It is fair to conclude, therefore, that, excepting perhaps 
the purple martin, no species has suffered a lasting or per- 
manent check from the action of the elements in 1903 or 
1904. 2 
1 No adequate protection has been accorded the bob-white since the above was 
written, and now (1908) there is very little increase of these birds, except where they 
have been introduced from the south or west. In some parts of southeastern Massa- 
chusetts the bob-white is common again. 
2 Now (June, 1908), four years after the above was written, martins are rare, swal- 
lows and swifts have not recovered their numbers in many localities, and rails and 
marsh wrens are still uncommon or rare on some of the river meadows. 
