106 



ORNITHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 17-No. 7 



Notes from Beaufort, N. C. 



I spent a few days at Beaufort, N. C, in the 

 early part of June of the present year, and I 

 give the following brief notes in connection 

 therewith. 



June 4. Spent half a day on extensive salt 

 marshes up the sound. Willets numerous; 

 eight specimens secured. One bunch of 

 Curlew seen; also a Raven and an unknown 

 Sandpiper. Little green and brown Lizards, 

 with red throats, not uncommon on the fences 

 but would not be caught. 



June 6. On the town marshes in the morn- 

 ing, I found Boat-tailed Grackles plentiful. 

 Green Herons pretty common and a few Sea- 

 side Sparrows were seen; one procured. Up 

 the sound in the afternoon, several Turnstones 

 were collected; others seen. Least Sandpipers 

 not uncommon on the shoals, and several good 

 buslies of Curlew on the marsh. The 

 Turnstones were simi)ly chunks of soft grease. 

 With lots of patience and corn-meal, I made 

 two fine, clean skins, but it took from 8 to 12 

 P.M. to do it. 



June 7. The shoals provided a Wilson's 

 Plover in the morning, and the marshes a few 

 Boat-tailed Grackles after dinner. The females 

 skinned over the head readily but the males 

 wouldn't skin worth a cent. I finally skinned 

 their heads through a cut in the back from the 

 outside. The Wilson's Plover is the first 

 published North Carolina record, I think, but 

 there has been very little systematic study of 

 our coast birds and they (Wilson's Plover) 

 may be common for all I know to the 

 contrary. 



June 8. On the marshes and beach in the 

 morning. The former provided a Sea-side 

 Sparrow and the latter a Sooty Shear-water. 

 The Shear-water was riding the swells, outside 

 the surf, and allowed me to wade out within 

 easy shot. Two heavy loads, apparently, laid 

 him out, and I went ashore to strip off and 

 retrieve. He revived, and I had to again wade 

 out and give him a couple more shots. Then 

 I undressed and secured my game. The speci- 

 men was in fine condition to put up, but very 

 emaciated and stomach empty. Although I 

 was working in a good light and the bird's 

 intestines and body were clean and 

 unmutilated, I could not determine the sex, 

 although I think it was a male. It makes a 

 beautiful skin. First North Carolina record. 

 I was much struck with the exceedingly long, 

 narrow wings. Extent, forty inches, width of 



spread wing, measured parallel with seconda- 

 ries, three and one-half inclies. Wing bones 

 very light and very elastic. Double-crested 

 Cormorants were common on the sounds and 

 evidently bj'eed near by, as bunches of fifteen 

 or twenty would leave the harbor towards 

 evening, always heading the same way, and 

 about 8 o'clock in the morning they returned 

 from the same direction. 



I found mink tracks on the salt marshes and 

 plenty of rabbit signs on the edge of the marsh 

 and beach. Kavens not rare, (^rows (Fish 

 and Common) common. Purple Martins 

 very plentiful, and a few of the following seen: 

 Orchard Oriole, Mockingbird, Bed-winged 

 Blackbird and Great Blue Heron. Clapper 

 Rails heard, but none seen. Bank Ponies 

 quite a feature on the beach and marsh. 

 They roam and breed at large, take to the 

 water like Ducks and are only handled at the 

 "pennings" when the colts are banded and 

 selections made for sale. 



H. II. Briinley. 



Raleigli, N. C. 



A Day in Texas Woods. 



On the evening of May 6, 1892, I made my 

 preparations for an all day tramp in the woods 

 of Travis County. 



I intended to go to sleej* early, but the low, 

 sweet song of a Mockingbird and the melan- 

 choly notes of a Chuck-will's-widow kept me 

 awake till nearly midnight. 



I awoke in the morning, just as the sun was 

 rising over the post-oaks in the east, and one 

 of the first sounds I heard was Jack, my 

 Mockingbird, practising in a minor key, the 

 Chuck-will's-widow's cry, but when he heard 

 me, he stopped as if ashamed of himself and 

 broke into a wild succession of Scissor-tailed 

 Flycatcher notes that would have driven their 

 originator frantic. 



On my way out as I walked through the Uni- 

 versity campus, a Western Lark Sparrow 

 {Chondestes grammacus strigatits) rose from 

 the tall grass and perched on a chaparral bush 

 {Berberis trifoliata) in which his mate was 

 patiently incubating her eggs and listening to 

 his morning song. Near by a Nonpareil 

 (Passerina clris) in the top of a sycamore tree 

 sang his loud, clear song, almost like a 

 Cardinal's, until a jealous Mocking-bird 

 {Mimus polyglottos) rushed at him and forced 

 him to beat a hasty retreat to a cedar bush 



