J^otes from jTield anD ^tuDp 



The Evening Grosbeak at Williams- 

 town, Mass. 



On January 26, I saw three Evening 

 Grosbeaks, one male and two females, 

 under an elm tree in my yard. 



There were patches of snow and ice on 

 the lawn, but the birds had, of course, 

 selected a grassy spot where they seemed 

 to be busily feeding. They were not at 

 all timid, and afterwards flew into an ad- 

 joining tree where I had a different and 

 quite near view of them. — Caroline R. 

 Le.\ke, Willianistown, Mass. 



The Evening Grosbeak at Rutland. Vt. 



On Friday, February 12, a female 

 Evening Grosbeak came into a box elder 

 tree a few feet from my window, and both 

 my husband and myself had an excellent 

 view of her. On Sunday afternoon, Feb- 

 ruary 21, two males came into the same 

 tree. They were scarcely ten feet away, 

 and remained for more than ten minutes, 

 feeding on the seeds left on the tree. My 

 husband and I each had a good glass, 

 though the birds were so near we did not 

 really need one, and we were able to 

 identify every feather according to de- 

 scriptions and a colored plate. 



After the birds flew away, knowing that 

 I had seen a rare species for this part of 

 the country, I telephoned to two members 

 of the Vermont Bird Club, one of whom, 

 Mr. George W. Kirk, came out and suc- 

 ceeded in finding the birds in a maple tree 

 a very short distance from where we had 

 seen them, and he fully corroborated my 

 statement. — M.^ry B. Coan. Rutland, Vt. 



A Wintering Ruby-crowned Kinglet and 

 Cowbird 



I notice that in Bird-Lore's Ninth 

 Christmas Census, you comment on the 

 occurrence of the Ruby-crowned Kinglet 

 on Long Island as being noteworthy. It 

 may, therefore, interest you to know that 



I positively identified one in the little ham- 

 let of Livingston, Columbia county, over 

 a hundred miles north of New York City, 

 on January 3, of this year. It was quite 

 alone in an apple tree, but fiew away be- 

 fore Mr. Clinton Abbott, who was with 

 me, could arrive on the scene. I have no 

 doubt whatever as to the identification, as 

 I was within six feet of the bird with the 

 light in my favor. 



Another note of interest is that a per- 

 fectly healthy male Cowbird spent the win- 

 ter of 1907-08 flying around as a boon 

 companion to a flock of a hundred or more 

 English Sparrows at my barn at Rhine- 

 beck, Dutchess county. ^Maunsell S. 

 Crosby, Rhinebeck, N . Y. 



[A Ruby-crowned Kinglet is also reported 

 from Hackettstown, N. J., on January 4, 

 1909, by Mary Pierson Allen.— Ed.] 



The Starling at Germantown, Pa. 



Recently I saw a flock of about fifteen 

 English Starlings in the neighborhood of 

 Germantown. They were flying fast and 

 rather high, but, from my short acquaint- 

 ance with them in New York state, I was 

 able to identify them. I have been hoping 

 for them ever since I knew them in 1906, 

 for to me they are far preferable to the 

 nefandum English Sparrow, whose one 

 thought is "battle, murder and sudden 

 death." — George Lear, Germantown, Pa. 



The Cardinal in Massachusetts 



Last week (February i, 1909) a friend 

 of mine at Ipswich wrote me that for the 

 past two or three weeks there had been a 

 beautiful strange bird which had been 

 coming into his dooryard for food. The 

 one that he described was practically red 

 all over with a very bright crest on his 

 head. At my earliest opportunity I visited 

 the farm, to find that when the bird came 

 at noon he was a beautiful Cardinal. He 

 has been there about a month up to the 

 present writing, and comes regularly to 



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