ORNITHOLOGY 



337 



trees. Evidently the l)ircl had ch-oj^ped 

 from a low hanging limb to the porch 

 roof and thence rolled to the ground. 



I have had several cuckoos in my 

 hands, but seldom has it been my for- 

 tune to see one with fuller, richer plu- 



THE CUCKOO. 



mage. It had been handled by several 

 people before the picture was made, 

 which accounts for the roughness of the 

 neck. This bird by the way had a dis- 

 tinct yellowish tinge to the throat and 

 upper breast. 



Sincerely yours, 



Fr-ank B. Hopkins. 



Bird Notes. 



A Barrows golden-eye was shot, in 

 company with other ducks off the Mas- 

 sachusetts coast in the early winter. 



A single specimen of the mountain 

 i:)lover (Podasocys iii<yrtainis) has lately 

 been taken on the lieach at Chatham, 

 Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, the first 

 record of the bird for New England. Its 

 proper breeding place is in the dry plains 

 from northern New Mexico to Montana, 

 and its wintering place is in the region 

 from northern California to central 

 Mexico. What series of accidents, one 

 wonders, could have brought this soli- 

 tary wanderer so far from its usual 

 haunts ! 



A mockingbird has l)een re]K)rted 

 throughout the fall from Manchester, 

 N. H., and without doul)t has wintered 

 in that locality, as wherever these birds 

 have been found they have become resi- 

 dent. 



An imusually large migration of the 

 northern birds have been reported as 

 visiting New England the past winter. 

 Pine grosbeaks, red-polls, pine siskins, 

 juncos, tree sparrows, American, and 

 white-winged crossbills, and our hand- 

 some visitors from the Canadian North- 

 west — the evening grosbeaks — have all 

 been reported in good numbers from 

 various and scattered localities. An 

 unusual invasion of "northern chicka- 

 dees" has also been reported from sev- 

 eral towns in Massachusetts. 



A Blue Jay Eats a Mouse. 



BY MILO LEON NORTON, BRISTOL, CONN. 



The other day a curious event oc- 

 curred in my yard. During a cold 

 spell my wife threw out a dead mouse, 

 thinking that a stray cat might carry it 

 ofif. But a blue jay picked it up, and 

 with it flew into the fork of an apple 

 tree where it held the mouse with one 

 foot and struck the body constantly, 

 like a woodpecker hammering at a tree 

 trunk. As the branch of the tree did 

 not seem entirely to please the jay, 

 the bird carried the mouse to the top 

 flat rail of a grapevine trellis, where it 

 continued to peck industriously at the 

 frozen rodent, evidently intending to 

 penetrate the skin to the flesh beneath. 

 Some moments later I saw the bird eat- 

 ing the mouse with apparent relish. T 

 wonder if any reader of The Guide to 

 Nature has ever noticed a similar per- 

 formance. 



Fossils brought back from within 

 four hundred miles of the south pole 

 include a fern-like plant of about the 

 age of our coal measures ; a creature in- 

 termediate between sponge and coral, 

 of Cambrian age, and armor plate from 

 a primitive fish, probably Devonian. 



Mrs. Richard A. Proctor has lately 

 been created a Fellow of the Royal As- 

 tronomical Society, just fifty years after 

 the same honor came to her famous hus- 

 band. 



