. Birds of a Maryland farm : a local study of economic ornithology . Potomac, trans-May-fly (from form mto adults, and flutter to the shore. Thesuddenness with which they appear and their vex-atious numbers may be understood from a description of the conditionsthat prevailed at Marshall Hall from the 13th to the loth of May, the morning of the 13th not a May-fly was to be seen. In the lateafternoon several were noticed along the shore. On the 11th manycame up from the river and flew around the house, and on the morn-ing of the 15th thousands were found clinging to the porch. Theysoon s
. Birds of a Maryland farm : a local study of economic ornithology . Potomac, trans-May-fly (from form mto adults, and flutter to the shore. Thesuddenness with which they appear and their vex-atious numbers may be understood from a description of the conditionsthat prevailed at Marshall Hall from the 13th to the loth of May, the morning of the 13th not a May-fly was to be seen. In the lateafternoon several were noticed along the shore. On the 11th manycame up from the river and flew around the house, and on the morn-ing of the 15th thousands were found clinging to the porch. Theysoon spread all over the farm, or, more strictly speaking, were blownover it. The air was full of them. After a walk of a hundred yardsalong the bluff in lot 3, I found 67 clinging to me. They covered thecedar trees beside the river, turning the dark green of the foliage toa distinct gray. They frightened the horses so badly by alighting onthem that plowing was suspended for several days. They swarmedinto the house and made meal-times almost unendurable. This condition. INSECT FOOD. 23 seldom lasts more than a week or two. Soon the dead bodies of theshort-lived creatures are cast up all along the shore in windrows severalinches high, and then there is a marked decrease in their abundanceabout the farm. They occur, however, though in constantly dimin-ishing numbers, throughout June and even into July. At their flood tide they furnish most of the food of practically allthe birds of the farm, even including barnyard fowls. They are soft,entirely edible, and highly nutritious, owing to the fact that thefemales are heavy with eggs. Any bird, no matter how clumsy, cancapture them as they make their aimless, blundering flights, or fallhelplessly from contact with objects in their way. It was interestingto see the methods by which different birds procured them. A greenheron, three spotted sandpipers, several song sparrows, and a dozencrow blackbirds frequented the beach, picking up insect af
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectbirds, bookyear1902
