112 
THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA 
yellow-billed cuckoo, brown thrashers, Baltimore orioles, 
and catbirds now ranged the grounds, some of these 
regularly. The brown thrashers built their nest in a low 
tree nearby, purple martins, house-wrens, flickers and 
bluebirds set up housekeeping in the various boxes, while 
the chipping sparrow, rose-breasted grosbeak and robins 
nested in the trees and bushes. 
Regularly kejjt notes during the entire season gave the 
following summary : Young hirds raised — nine bluebirds, 
two flickers, three robins, eleven wrens and three purple 
martins, or twenty-eight birds in all. 
But — in addition to these we noted thirteen other un- 
successful nests disturbed by various causes, as appended 
list will show. 
The fall migrants of 1914 again deli.ghted us for all 
too short a time and the slate colored juncos in this 
vicinity were absent the entire winter. This left us but 
few winter guests — two white-breasted nuthatches, a 
brown creeper, two downy and one hairy woodpeckers. 
The spring of 1915 opened up with the stopping oft' of 
the usual migrants, also many new ones, especially the 
warblers, which seemed to find something to hold their 
interest. Goldfinches, too, now were daily visitors, the 
rrtartin colony became quite strong and season promised 
to be one of great importance. Alas — it rained and then 
it poured and rained again and precious eggs and 
fledglings got chilled and drenched. However, our notes 
were yet encouraging and thirty-one birds were success- 
fully hatclied during this adverse season. 
No radical changes took place among the nesting sum- 
mer residents, the only addition being an American gold- 
finch, which built in a secure whorl of twigs in a maple 
above the highway, and, but a few feet above the tops 
of passing automobiles. 
One pair of catbirds built just outside of the vard, as 
did two pair of wrens, a bluebird and several rolnns. All 
of these, with the exception of the robins and catbirds, 
used the nesting boxes furnished by me to neighbors, who 
heretofore did not care for birds at all. 
The fall migrations of 1915 also brought increased 
nunil)ers of birds, and, with the advent of winter, came 
a redbreasted nuthatch and five blackcajiped chickadees in 
addition to the former guests. 
The season of 1916 again proved to be a disastrous- 
one. The appended table shows clearly the additional 
feathered tenants and species represented before, but 
there were several additions of new species which hereto- 
fore had not nested on Sycamore Terrace. The catbird 
moved across the alley into a honeysuckle bush and a 
Bewicks wren occupied a nesting box in one of the maple 
trees. An Orchard Oriole and a warbling vireo alsa 
moved into the neighborhood and were frequent visitors 
on the place. Neither of these two species have been 
noted before anywhere in the neighborhood. A total of 
fifty-six nestlings, .many with an interesting family his- 
tory, were raised at Sycamore Terrace, the fourth year of 
systematic work of attracting and protecting birds. The 
continued rains played havoc with the bird's building in 
trees and bushes, such as the chipping sparrows, robins 
and catbird. In fact, a little over 28 per cent, of the nest 
failures were due to natural forces, according to the 
appended table. A little over 42 per cent of the nests 
built were unsuccessful. The contributory causes are as 
follows : 
Cats 1.2 7o ■; 
Cowbirds 2.4 % 
Unknown causes 19.28% 
Wind and rain 12.00% 
Bluejay Crackles 2.4 % 
English Sparrows .... 2.4 % 
\\'oodpecker 2.4 % 
Cats were but a small factor in the destruction of bird 
life in this yard, since many cats are caught with box 
traps annually and in consequence the neighborhood has 
become practically catless. There surely are no tramp 
cats. The English sparrow too is consistently kept in 
check and e>rterminated where possible. 
Sucking eggs 
Interference 
Sucking eggs 
X,-sts 
built 
1913 
Woudpecker. reilhe.ided. . . 1 
ChippiniE: .sparrow 2 
Yellow WarblPV 2 
House-wren 1 
1914 
Woodpeoker, readheaded. . 2 
Flicker 2 
Chipping Sparrow 1 
Purple martin ."i 
Rose-breasted grosbeak. . . 1 
House-wren 3 
Robin 4 
Bluebird 2 
1915 
Woodpecker, redheaded. . . 1 
Flicker 1 
American goldfinch 1 
Purple martin 11 
Chipping sparrow 1 
House-wren 2 
Robin <! 
Bluebird j . . . 1 
191(! 
Robin 3 
Bluebird 3 
Flicker 1 
House-wren 2 
Bewick wren 1 
Chipping sparrow 6 
Martin 16 
Catbird 1 
Grand total 
.83 
Vounji; 
raised 
2 
3 
ii 
3 
9 
3 
8 
'4 
9 
4 
7 
9 
4 
4 

8 
18 
127 
Unsuccessful 
nests 
Disturbed Intrusion 
by cat b.v cowbird 
Cause 
unknown 
Wind and Eggs Disturbed Disturbed 
rain sucked by English by red- 
sparrows headed 
woodpecker 
3 
2 
1 
35 
1 
1 
2 
2 
16 
1 
i 
10 
J 
