Canada 
lhatch 
and Chickadees in mixed woods was a Red-bellied Nuthatch, 
creeping about on a pitch pine. It is the fourth I have seen 
thus far. 
White-bellied Practically all my records this year of White- 
Nuthatch bellied Nuthatches relate to birds seen in the elms in front 
of our house or in the trees about the Manse, but this 
morning I found a solitary bird in the heart .of the Estabrook 
Woods, 
Partridges 
drum, .ling 
freely 
Abundance 
of 
Sauirrels 
Grouse were drumming to-day as freely and vigorously 
as in spring. We heard no less than four different birds 
and started a fifth in oak scrub. The sportsmen report them 
very scarce thus farTj 
It is a great Squirrel year. The woods to-day were 
simply alive with Chipmunks and we saw or heard at least a 
dozen Red Squirrels but rnet with but one Gray Squirrel, al¬ 
though the last species is said to be also exceptionally 
numerous. This increase of Squirrels (all three species were 
very scarce last autumn) is not a local phenomenon, for the 
Sportsmen’s papers report them in great numbers from various 
parts of New England, the Middle States and the Ohio Valley. 
In this region it might be accounted for by the exceptionally 
abundant crop of nuts and berries of all kinds. The Red 
Squirrels, as I noted the other day, are already eating the 
chestnuts. In many places to-day we found the ground under 
these trees literally covered with unopened burrs attached to 
short pieces of twigs, which showed the marks of the Squirrels’ 
teeth. There are fully two bushels of these burrs under our tree. 
We saw the Squirrels carrying them in their mouths and found 
great heaps of "chunk ings”dm the tops of stumps and v/alls. 
