The Season 



353 



Swallows rose from the rice in great swaying 

 columns, dense and black, and mounted into 

 the air like towering streamers of smoke, 

 undulating and drifting about with the 

 lower end of the column close to the rice, the 

 upper end mounting higher and higher until 

 finally it spread out like a vast mushroom, 

 the tiny birds just visible as they fluttered 

 and floated about in the upper air. Several 

 of these streamers formed at the same time 

 and as they swayed and moved about, two 

 of them occasionally came together when they 

 merged into one and the dizzy, whirligig 

 game went merrily on in augmented numbers. 

 Every now and then one of these columns 

 broke asunder and the birds scattered in a 

 vast revolving flock, only to come quickly 

 together again as before. While scattered 

 the birds all twittered incessantly, but as soon 

 as the column was reformed they all became 

 silent. After an hour or so the upper air 

 became literally alive with Swallows, that 

 could be seen plainly only with the aid of a 

 glass. They milled about over a wide area, 

 sustaining themselves by rapid, fluttering 

 wing-beats alternating with brief periods of 

 soaring, a manner of flight very unlike their 

 normal movements. 



This regular morning performance of the 

 Swallows was so remarkable and spectacular 

 that it attracted and held the attention of 

 many of the members of the club, even 

 though they were not interested in birds, and 

 I am inclined to think saved the life of an 

 occasional Duck that might have been 

 bagged, had the Swallow-play been less 

 absorbing. 



September 2j. The first Green-winged 

 Teal shot at the Gun Club. This Duck is a 

 rather late arrival from farther north. 



September 24. The Swallows are still at 

 the sloughs but the evolutions this morning 

 were somewhat different. The birds did not 

 tower so high but remained in great, whirling 

 flocks which rose from the rice and settled 

 back again from time to time, keeping this up 

 from daylight until after 9 o'clock, when they 

 scattered for the day. These great flocks 

 left shortly after this date, only a few strag- 

 gling birds remaining. — Taos. S. Roberts, 

 Zoological Museum, University of Minnesota. 

 Minneapolis, Minn. 



Kansas City Region. — It will be re- 

 membered that the unprecedented invasion 

 of Magpies down the Missouri Valley last 

 winter penetrated northwestern Missouri as 

 far as southern Holt County where fifty or 

 more individuals were under observation 

 throughout the winter. Word has recently 

 reached the writer from an entirely trust- 

 worthy source that at least two pair of these 

 showy and noisy strangers remained in that 

 region to breed, and that the two nests in 

 which young are known to have been raised 

 are located less than three miles from Corning. 

 Mr. Charles E. Dankers has been asked to 

 photograph these nests if possible, and to 

 furnish such documentary proof as will make 

 this astonishing record absolutely authentic. 

 This is, of course, a new record for Missouri. 



Random notes for the early part of the 

 current season include such records as the 

 true singing of the Blue Jay heard on August 

 15, a rare performance indeed and only once 

 before heard by the writer; a feeding Upland 

 Plover seen on the Shelter House lawn in 

 Swope Park on August 16; a Mourning Dove 

 building a belated nest on August 22; Kill- 

 deers and Green Herons heard overhead 

 during the dark nights of August 24 and 26; 

 a continuous migration of Nighthawks during 

 the last week of August and the first week of 

 September, when birds displaying every 

 color and shade of plumage were seen 

 perching about in shade trees and on feed 

 wires and telephone cables within the city; 

 Baltimore Orioles heard in full song as late 

 as September 6; and migrating Savannah 

 Sparrows seen on September 14. 



A protracted heat-wave and drought gave 

 way on September 8 to a forty-eight-hour 

 downpour of rain accompanied by 25 drop 

 in temperature which marked the beginning 

 in earnest of fall migration. On the morning 

 of September 10, several Black-crowned 

 Night Herons and a mixed crowd of Sand- 

 pipers were surprised in Forest Hill Cemetery; 

 on the 12th Meadowlarks fairly swarmed 

 everywhere in the open, singing their par- 

 ticularly pleasing, rollicking traveling song; 

 on the 13th the first Rough-legged Hawk, 

 probably a bird of the year, was seen being 

 worried by a pair of pugnacious Sparrow 

 Hawks; and on the 15th the first large gangs 



