152 Bird- Lore
holes nearly or quite to the foot of the vertical part of the bank, while they were also present on one or both sides of several of the holes. Usually there were five of them, from one-eighth to one-fourth of an inch apart and perfectly parallel even where they followed somewhat wavy courses, but in places only two or three could be distinctly tracedt Most of them looked rather fresh but some had become much obscured by the action of the weather. Quite evidently some animal with sharp-pointed claws had made them in climbing to, descending from, or clinging just below, the holes. At first I suspected the creature to have been a cat, for I remembered to have seen. last summer. a large black cat perched on a narrow shelf of a sand-bank at Concord, striking at the anxious and excited Swallows as they darted close about her. A little reflection convinced me, however, that no cat would be likely to break up so large a breeding colony as this. I there- fore descended to the river bank, hoping to find the solution of the mystery there. Nor was I disappointed, for the entire expanse of smooth, wet sand along the water’s edge was thickly covered with mimf (rarer. They were of various ages, from perfectly fresh-looking imprints that clearly showed the marks of the animal's toe-pads and even claws to dim impressions blurred by wind and rain. As nearly as I could judge all the tracks must have been made by a single mink, or, if by more than one, at least by animals of nearly the same size and age They extended back from the water as far as the sand was sufficiently loose to enable them to be traced
I next looked for remains of the birds. Those of at least six Swallows were quickly discovered scattered over the sandy Hat near the edge of the water. while further back. in a crevice behind a huge clod of turf which had fallen from the bank above were those of at least as many more. In most instances they consisted merely of piles of feathers, with perhaps the terminal joint of a wing, but from beneath the clod I took the entire head, wings and feet of one Swallow still joined together by skin and cleanly picked bones (including the sternum) and the wings, bill and one leg of another similarly connected by skin but with all the bones (save those of the wing and leg) missing The two birds last mentioned were adults, but all the other remains were unmistakably those of young, wellegrown and covered with sprouting feathers of the first or natal plumage.
The space beneath the clod, although wide and deep, was nowhere more than four or five inches in height. Hence it could scarce have ad» mitted any animal larger than a mink. That one or more of these blood. thirsty creatures had feasted long and sumptuoust on the unfortunate Swal- lows, no doubt eating on the spot or carrying off to more distant retreats practically all the young as well as at least a few of their parents, seems evi- dent from the circumstantial evidence above recordedr It is, indeed, sad to reflect that such tragedies must be of not infrequent occurrence in nature, and humiliating that we are so nearly powerless to foresee and prevent them.
