A Tragedy in Nature 151
again when we wanted to photograph themt Their nests were nearly made of dry and green reeds. closely woven together, often arched over above, and looking very pretty with the large, pure white eggs. Some times they, too, were impOSed upon by the careless Redheads.
Had time and strength not been exhausted, we might have studied the many other interesting birds we saw.—the Mallards, l’intails, and Blue-wing Teals nesting in the grassy borders of the slough, the Long- billed l\/Iarsh Wrens chattering in the flags. and the Short-cared Owls and Marsh Hawks on the surrounding prairies: but even the long North Dakota day was drawing to a close. and we reluctantly turned away from the fascinating and almost bewildering scenes of this wonderful locality.
A Tragedy in Nature
EY WILLIAM BREWSTER
T Lancaster, Massachusetts, on May 24 last. I noticed a swarm of Bank Swallows flying about over the river near a low bank in which were a great number of their nesting holes. It was a newly-estab-
lished colony, for no birds had bred on this particular stretch of river in 1901 or 19021 Visiting the place again on the afternoon of June 19, I counted one hundred and eight holes but, greatly to my surprise, there were no birds in sight. At length, however, a single pair appeared and one of them repeatedly entered a hole (always the mine hole) with food for its young. Feeling sure that something must be wrong I approached the bank and examined it attentively. For a distance of about eight feet back from the water‘s edge the surface of the ground was sandy or gravelly and sloped only very gently upward. Above this for a distance of perhaps six feet (measured along the surface) the slope was at an average angle of about forty-five degrees and the soil, like that of the vertical bank still higher up, pure, fine, hard-packed sand. The vertical portion averaged about two feet in height and was slightly overhung in places by the loamy turf of the pasture land above All the Swallows' holes were, of course, in the verti- cal face of the bank, most of them being nearer the top than the bottom and a good many close under the projecting sod. A glance satisfied me that the village boys had not molested them, for they showed no traces of enlargement. What, then, could have banished the birds from so apparv ently safe and congenial a nesting place? As I was speculating on this point I noticed some scratches on the face of the bank immediately below one of the holes. On examining the other holes I found that only one (that whichI had seen the bird enter) was without these tell-tale marks. They resembled deep pin»scratches and extended from the entrances of the
