112 AT TEE NORTH OF BEARCAMP WATER. 
as a red-eyed vireo sitting upon a twig. Close 
by it was a second vireo also perfectly passive. 
I watched them for a long time, and could see 
nothing but their eyes move. It is such moods 
as this, taking possession of birds, which make 
some parts of the day silent, and cause the 
woods to seem deserted by all their feathered 
tenants. Another occupant of the thicket was 
a yellow-bellied flycatcher, whose activity in the 
pursuit of small insects was tireless. He cer¬ 
tainly found enough to eat, for small insects 
have been unusually abundant this summer, 
while birds have been noticeably scarce near 
Chocorua. Some species, usually well repre¬ 
sented, have seemingly vanished, and others, 
quite numerous in average years, have been 
very sparingly represented. For instance, the 
summer has passed without my seeing either an 
oriole or a winter wren, while redstarts and 
chestnut-sided warblers, usually among the 
most numerous species, have been represented 
by a mere handful of birds. The supposed local 
causes of this dearth of small birds are a heavy 
snowfall, which occurred the last week in May, 
and a hailstorm, which did great damage just 
in the middle of the nesting period. Unusual 
numbers of birds are said to have been killed 
by spring storms in the Gulf States before the 
year’s migration really began. 
