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152 THE CONDOR Vol. XXI Sharp-shinned Hawks were nesting on the wooded hillside across the outlet, a family of skunks had its den under the root of a fallen tree hardly 30 yards away, snakes were plentiful among the sedge, minks and weasels passed up and down the outlet, and many bare- foot boys wended their way past the nesting site to the fishing holes farther up along the shores. The unus- ual spring freshets take a heavy toll of the first nest- lings and these other agen- cies destroy many of the sec- ond and third broods; so that the number of Merrill Song Sparrows are kept at a min- itnum. Very few species of birds are to be found in or about this haunt during the first nesting period of the Song Sparrows. A few pairs of Long-tailed Chickadees pass through the willows looking for a promising nesting stub, Fig. 32. YOUNG MERRILL SoNG SPARROW, ABOUT FIfTEEN BAYS OLD AND READY TO LEAVE NEST. THERE WERE BUT TWO YOUNG IN THIS NEST, WHICH WAS 48 YARDS FROM THE NEST SHOWN IN FIGUnE 28. PHOTOGRAPHED MAY 25, 1918. 1 Fig. 33. FOUR OF THE FIVE YOUNG MERRILL S9NI SPARROWS FROM THE NEST SHOWN IN FIG- t'RE 28. and there is an occasional pair of Montana Juneos, Western Robins, anal now and then a flock of Brewer Blackbirds. The mating calls of the Red-shafted