THE OSPREY 



149 



NOTE AND COMMENT. 



General Notes. 



Mr. Frank H. Lattin attended the National Educa- 

 tional Association convention at Milwaukee. 



Mr. J. Parker Norris, J.r., writes that he has taken 

 seven sets of the Blue-winged Warbler this season 



In quoting Mr. Rufus H. Carr in the June Osi'rev 

 the word "bills" should be inserted instead of "feet." 



Mr Lee Chambers, of Santa Monica, Cal , writes 

 under the date of June 14 that he has just found a 

 nest of the White-throated Swift containing two 

 freshly laid eggs. 



Mr. Geo. F. Breninger returned, July i, from a two 

 months' collecting trip into the Santa Rita and 

 Huachuca Mountains He has taken many rare and 

 desirable birds, nests and eggs 



Mr. Joseph Grinnell, while at San Clemente Island, 

 March 31, secured specimens of a Towhee which have 

 proved a new species Mr. Grinnell names it the 

 San Clemente Towhee, Pipilo clemoitu-, in July Auk. 



Mr. R. W Williams, Jr., has returned for the 

 summer to his home in Florida from Valparaiso. Ind. 

 He thinks he is reversing the usual order of Florida 

 sojourning, and has not cared to expose himself to 

 Old Sol's rays by undertaking field work 



Mr. Thomas H. Blodgett was elected First Vice 

 President of the National Republican College League, 

 at Detroit, July 14. This is an organization of 50,000 

 members. Mr. Blodgett attended Knox College at 

 Galesburg, last year, but expects to take up his studies 

 at Ann Arbor, in the fall 



On July ro the editor of The Osprey had the 

 pleasure of making the personal acquaintance of Mr. 

 Claude King, editor of Sports Afield. Mr. King was 

 "on the road" in the interests of his publication 

 The name "Claude King" insures him a hearty wel- 

 come among sportsmen wherever he may go. 



Mr. Wm. Dutcher writes us: "Audubon societies 

 are now in process of formation in Maine, Vermont, 

 New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New Jersey and two 

 or three of the Western states. I am pleased to be 

 able to state that the interest in bird protection seems 

 to be wide-spread and is growing every day." 



We regret to hear of the misfortune that has re- 

 cently come to the home of the Rev. P. B. Peabody. 

 Sickness and \he invasion of the flooded river has 

 compelled him to neglect his ornithological corres- 

 pondence He wishes parties with whom he has 

 business to send memorandum of accounts to replace 

 papers he has lost or mislaid. 



A number of Homing Pigeons, owned by Mr. H 

 J Baumgaertner. President of the Milwaukee Com- 

 mon Council, on June 11 finished a flight of 400 

 miles in nine hours and twenty minutes, the fastest 

 time, for the distance, it is claimed, ever made in the 

 West. The birds were liberated at fronton. Mo., 

 under the auspices of the National Federation of 

 Homing Pigeon Fanciers 



An interesting communication of Mr. Chas. K. 

 Worthen states that among late rich and rare addi- 

 tions to his stock are skins, male and female, and 

 nests and eggs of the Golden-cheeked Warbler ; and 

 numbers of skins of both sexes of the now-nearly-ex- 

 tinct Carolina Paroquet A lately acquired skin of 

 the California Condor was not taken from the same 

 locality as the egg, as was erroneously stated in the 

 May OspREY 



LATE SPRING MIGRANTS. 



Last Myrtle Warbler seen on April 27, eclipsing 

 previous records by five days. An unidentified War- 

 bler, presumably Blackburnian, hung about the city 

 on April 29, 30, and May i. 



May I a single Gray-cheeked Thrush was picked 

 up dead, nearly cut in half by collision with some 

 sharp edge. Four White-crowned Sparrows, hereto- 

 fore a rare bird here, arrived the night of April 30, 

 and remained until the night of May 2. 



May 2 and 3 one more Gray-cheeked Thrush seen, 

 (arrival for Gray-cheeks, Maiuh j-j, showing a pretty 

 long spring halt :) May 4, a wave of Gray-cheeks, 

 three Olive-backs, and one Wilson's Thrush, a rare 

 Thrush here, generally. A large number, also, of 

 Nighthawks and New York Water Thrushes came 

 in, and the last Yellow Warbler went north. 



May 5, Gray cheeks swarmed — for Gray-cheeks; 

 more Water Thrushes ; few Nighthawks. Two, (a 

 pair,) late Bay-breasted Warblers, one fuU-plumaged 

 Magnolia Warbler in company with them One late 

 Catbird 



May 6, Water Thrushes and Nighthawks nearly 

 all gone. One young male Rose-breasted Grosbeak 

 killed. Gray-cheeks much less common. One un- 

 identified Warbler 



May 7 about ended the migration ; one Water 

 Thrush and one Gray-cheek only ; killed a female 

 Blue Grosbeak, and noted a flock of five Waxwings. 

 — Andrew Allison, Neio Orleans, Ln. 



SOME LATE MIGRANTS. 

 It was so pleasant and cool in the Central Missis- 

 sippi Valley up to the loth of June, that some of our 

 northern transients were loth to leave it. I do not 

 remember that the Olive-sided and the Yellow-bellied 

 Flycatchers were ever so plentiful as this season, and 

 they were certainly never so late Spending the last 

 four days of May and the first of June in the vicinity 

 of Ouincy, 111., I found both species (juite conspicuous 

 to the last day (June i). Some other late dates are ; 

 May 31, Gc'othh'pis a,i^ilis, (Connecticut Warbler,) and 

 Sciiirus noveboracensis, (Water Thrush,); May 29, 

 Dolichoiiyx oryzivortis, (Bobolink,) and Sykuuiin caii- 

 aJensis, (Canadian Warbler,); May 28, Melospiza hn- 

 coni, (\^\nco\ns Sparrow.) — O. Widmann, Old Orchard, 

 A/,y. 



YELLOW-HEADED BLACKBIRD NESTING 

 IN WILD RICE. 

 I see in the May Ospkev that Prof Kumlien states 

 that the Yellow-headed Blackbird probably never nests 

 in Wild Rice in the Mississippi Valley I found them 

 nesting abundantly in Wild Rice in Jackson County, 

 Minnesota, during June of this year ; and there were 

 more nests in the Wild Rice than anywhere else. In 

 and around St. Paul, howe\er. they never nest in the 

 Wild Rice, to my knowledge. — W.alton I Mitchell, 

 .SV. Fai/l Minn. 



AN OSPREY'S NEST AT HARTFORD, CONN 

 Referring to the nest built here in 1895, as noted 

 on page 130 of The Osprey, I would like to add that 

 it was built up again this spring in exactly the same 

 spot as in 1895. It is a little larger, if anything, than 

 the first nest, but is otherwise precisely similar, and 

 is, presumably, the work of the same pair of birds. 

 They again used it only as a roost and eating perch, 

 and left for the South about the last week of April. — 

 Henry R. Buck, IVetlursJield, Conn. 



