wintered, and never strayed far from the old lane, or the tangles around a chain of small ponds close by. They were always together and part of the time in company of a male Chewink, and their merry whistle was heard even when the snow was deepest, and one wondered where they procured their food. May 2, 1902, I found their nest, the first one known about Norwalk. It was built on the ground in the old lane. and was Composed of moss and leaves, in form being very much like an Oven-bird's nest. May 6, the old birds had torn away the top of the nest, leaving the four young exposed. and the next day the young left the nest.
A number of pairs wintered the past season, but in the same restricted range, and I take them to be the young of the past seasons. This year, 1903, one pair nested near the old site, another pair built early in April, behind a board in the peak of an old barn, which scarce withstood the winter's storms. Unlike the first nest found, this nest was built of hay, ferns, rootlets and feathers and was lined with white horsehair from the tenant downstairs. The young, four in number, flew May 2.
During nesting time the old birds sang from daylight till dark, attracting the attention of everybody in the neighborhood.
When I told the owner of the barn I wished to find the nest, he said "All right, and if you do you can have the young, too." When told of the birds' worth on his farm, and asked why he would be rid of them, he answered, "The old bird gets on the barn at break of day and whistles so loud he wakes me up, and I cannot go to sleep again, because of him."
At this time, May 11, the family is still together, and find a welcome home behind the old barn. — Wilbur F. Smith, South Norwalk, Connecticut.
Mortality Among Birds in June
From the reports of a number of correspondents we quote the following observations in regard to the mortality among young birds in June last, incident to the prolonged rains and unseasonable weather:
Mr. William R. Lord writes from Rockland, Massachusetts: "I wonder if any one has reported to you the fact that the extraordinary prolonged cold weather in June resulted in the death of all, so far as we can learn, of the young of the Martins and Barn Swallows in the region of Flymouth county, Massachusetts? and, what is more to be regretted, the death of many of the adult Martins, due to starvation. The latter have been taken from their boxes and picked up in the fields about my own town, Rockland, and about Hanover.
"The cold weather seems not only to have numbed the insects so they could not fly, but, at last, to have killed them outright. Farmers report no grasshoppers or crickets in their mown fields and speak of it as a strange experience. If these insects have been killed, the smaller and more aerial species must have suffered more severely. One man reports twenty-one dead Martins, young and old, and another report the same facts as of Martins and speak of the dead young of the Barn Swallows, giving definite numbers of the latter.
"In general, it has been a hard year on birds. Dry weather preceded the cold, and later many nests containing young were blown down and some young were chilled, fell and perished. I wonder if this experience is a wide one? it so, it will he felt next year.
"I should say also that the Barn Swallows, Martins and Chimney Swifts disappeared from their haunts about here about the time the dead were found."
Mr. Henry Hales writes from Ridgewood, New Jersey, under date of June 20: "My old barn has been the breeding—place for a lot of Barn Swallows every year since I have lived here and long before. Every summer quite a colony come to and to another barn across the bay. Seeing this year only a solitary pair, it was supposed the birds' absence was due to Cats, Squirrels or House Sparrows; but, to my astonishment, I find the same conditions all through the country about here. I sometimes travel twenty miles a day and see only two or three birds."
