14 PAE "AUD Bi wNE Se ee eae ns 
also let us start a movement to save these insect hunters, the smartest 
of birds, one of the resources of nature, our flocks of crows! 
References: Bulletins 1102 and 621, U. S. Dept. Agr. E. R. Kalmbach, Circular 433, 
U. S. Dept. Agr. “The Hunting Annual,’ 1938. Science News Letters—various reports in 1938, 
Newspaper and magazine articles. Man’s Friend the Crow, Emergency Conservation Committee, 
Sept., 19387. 
Riverside, Ill. 
Bird Notes at Quincy, 1938 
By T. E. MUSSELMAN, Sc. D. 
NINETEEN THIRTY-EIGHT was a mild year with the return of the birds 
and the development of flowers earlier than normal. Bluebirds were 
common throughout January, while migrant shrikes, doves and 
meadowlarks remained all winter. Robins appeared February 3, and 
were common by the 6th. Kildeers were running about the fields 
February 10, and robins were singing on the llth. (My earliest 
record. ) 
I have always advised the planting of bittersweet. The brilliant 
red berries, the past year, supplied food for several mockingbirds 
through the cold weather. Cedar waxwings appeared, however, Feb- 
ruary 13, and depleted the abundant supply of these decorative fruits. 
A red-tailed hawk started building in one of the elms far back in 
my woods. Purple finches were abundant at this time and ate the 
large buds of hard maples and tore the hedge-balls to shreds. Yearly 
I record a few migrant specimens of the Western meadowlark. None 
has nested nearer than La Belle, Mo., however. On February 28 I 
heard them singing. 
By March 20 the wrens had started building in the metal] end 
of a cistern water chute which was suspended in my wood shed. 
Bluebirds were fighting for mates and nest boxes. I had nearly 500 
boxes painted and cleaned and ready for them. By the 27th ninety- 
three per cent of my bluebird boxes had nests and many had eggs, 
On April 7th two sapsuckers girdled my Scotch pine. Last year I 
caught one of these offenders, banded it and carried it a hundred miles 
to Milan, Mo., where I released it. April 17th barn swallows first slept 
in our barn. Formerly I had but one nest of these birds. The mother 
is banded and has returned for several] years. Last year I constructed 
a second nest on another rafter and was surprised to find that an 
additional pair accepted this nest and reared two broods in it. For 
1939 I have added two more mud nests and hope for equally good 
luck with renters. 
I built a tiny six-sided box with a knothole entrance. This was 
taken by black-capped chickadees which built a nest of hair and fur, 
and April 22 there was a finished complement of nine eggs. Blue- 
birds which lost their eggs by freezing were building new nests of 
grass over the old eggs. I found a box with two dead females in it. 
They had not survived the freeze. 
This year I propose building fifty miniature bluebird boxes to 
be erected along the Illinois River at Florence and later fifty more 
