1909 
March 21 
* * * * * * * * * 
X* Mrs. E. W. Emerson told me an interesting and most 
surprising story about some Tree Sparrows. Six of them 
settled for the past winter near her house, coming to it 
every day for the seeds she put out for them. As they were 
eating these one morning a bird was suddenly attacked by 
another, apparently without provocation, and pecked so 
severely about the head and neck that it was speedily and 
completely disabled. Mrs. Emerson saw all this with her own 
eyes. She knows Tree Sparrows well and is certain that 
one of them was the aggressor. Mr. Emerson went out and 
picked up the injured bird. After satisfying himself that 
it could not recover, he killed it. He tells me that the 
most serious wound it showed was in the cervical vertebrae 
near the base of the skull. The other five birds were seen 
through the entire winter. 
Robin singing A Robin in front of the house was singing sotto voce, 
^ so -fc-t; 0 about noon, in a barberry bush the berries of which it ate 
voce greedily during intervals of silence. This is the first 
Robin song I have heard. The birds are few in number 
Tr^ ^Sparrow 
attacked 
and 
mortally 
wounded 
by 
another 
bird of 
the same 
species 
and 
fea 
on barberries 
feasting and chiefly confined to pasture lands. 
A Cotton-tail Rabbit, started by Larry this forenoon, 
Rabbit 
running 
at unusual 
speed 
took a nearly straight course across Birch Field, running 
at very unusual speed and alternately appearing and dis¬ 
appearing among the scattered clusters of trees. Edward W. 
