9 8 THE CONDOR I Vol. lI birds but attril)uted it to casual or temporary causes of the year, as is frequently the case. On my return a month earlier this year, birds were com- mon until about June 2 4. Up to that time, owing to the increased number of migrating birds and the greater number of bird songs due to the mating season, the scarceness of resident birds was not noticeable, but from that date on there was a change. Species had followed fipecies ou their uorthernjourney and although many stayed quite a while, I soon saw that the bulk of them were leaving us. Gradually, as the rest set- tled down to home life, their mating songs decreased in frequency and I found that last summer's scarceness was to be this year's share as well. ()n the 6th and ruth of June I noticed various birds, such as robins, bluebirds and flycatchers, driving chipmunks out of trees, and I will add that this fact was noticed by myself and cthers fre- quently during June, July and part of August. It was interesting and anms- ing, and thinking I nfight find out the reason, I began to watch them. On the I2th I caught a chipmunk in the act of robbing a robin's nest. The parents were both away at the time and when I first noticed him, one of the old birds had returned and was driving him down the tree trunk. Finally he had to drop his booty in order to escape the bird's wrath, and then quickly got away. On picking it up, I found I had the first piece of evidence against the little animals, for in my hand lay a very young robin iu his last struggle. After a short search under the tree I found another dead young bird, ahnost under the nest, out of which he must have been ejected, either accidentally or forcibly. The chipmunk that did the deed was the only one of the larger ones that I have seen doing harln to the birds, but all three sizes of these little animals do such work, whether they are oue species or several. Ou June ?6 I fouud three small-sized chil> munks engaged in a three-cornered tug- of-xvar over the arm of a very young bird, and on getting closer to them they scurried off, learlug the nmtilated remains behiud them, but in this case [ only succeeded in finding an empty nest so that I was unable to to identify it or the arm. On June 24 I found the dead body of a very young bird near an old stump, where innumerable chipnmnks dwelt, so I withdrew to a distance and with my glass watched the bird closely. As soon as they felt sure [ had gone, the chip- nmnks began scampering around again, and in a short time one came across the young bird and quickly retired with it to a hole in the stump. Whether he had dropped the bird on hearing me conting or had simply found it accident- ally, I am uuable to say. On June 28, hearing a lot of noise between some small birds and a chipmunk, I went nearer to see what the trouble was and found a pair of Pileolated Warblers try- ing to drive a chipmunk away from their nest. They were sucvessful finally, but not until the chipmunk had been also, for the nest contained four young birds the day before and when I visited it this time all I found was one dead bird with two fresh wounds in its back and one live one, which I returned to the nest. On the following day I revisited the uest and found that something, probably the same animal, had made off with the remaining bird. This same day I found t?o more warblers' nests, one more than a hundred feet away from the first one and the other but forty feet away, this last one containing four eggs, apparently well incubated. Five days later, on July 2, I returned to the nest but it was empty and the hair liniug partly torn out. However, I beheve it had only been done a short time before as both parents were near and anxiously watched me, while at the same time there appeared to be a lively time in a nearby chipmunk residence. On July 5 I witnessed the most dariug piece of mischief done 1)y the chip- munks.
