Notes from Field and Study 



119 



cleaned from the bones, and they must 

 have been eaten within three days, since 

 the last snow. 



Mr. Miller, of the American Museum, 

 pronounced one as a two-year-old bird, 

 and the other is clearly a younger bird. 

 Sage and Bishop, in their 'Birds of Con- 

 necticut,' give the latest date for the 

 Night Heron as November 17, though 

 they occasionally winter near here. Three 

 Pine Grosbeaks were noted in January, 

 a few Siskins, and a few Snow Buntings. 



February 27, Mr. James Hall found a 

 Hermit Thrush among sumacs in a swamp, 

 the bird being in fine condition. 



March 4, I found the first flock of Red- 

 polls, about fifty in number, and con- 

 taining some fine males. 



Ice and the cold have been hard on 

 birds, many Ducks have died, a Pheasant 

 a Meadowlark, and a Short-eared Owl, 

 all terribly emaciated, were found dead, 

 and their fate told that of many others, 

 no doubt, though more people have been 

 feeding birds about here this winter than 

 ever before. — Wilbur F. Smith. 



A City Kept Awake by the Honking 

 of Migrating Geese 



Shortly after midnight, October 6, I 

 was awakened from sleep by the honk- 

 honking of migrating geese. I arose at 

 once and looked out to see the birds. The 

 air was filled with heavy mist, and the 

 sky was hidden by black clouds, so that 

 the birds could not be seen in the darkness. 

 The honking was very loud at first, and 

 then it could hardly be heard. Soon it 

 would seem as if the Geese were flying 

 past my window again. It was evident 

 that the Geese were flying back and forth 

 over the city. The honking continued 

 until daybreak. 



The next day, many citizens in Norman 

 remarked about the flock of Geese which 

 seemed to be flying back and forth over 

 the city during the latter part of the night. 



These Geese were doubtless migrating 

 southward, under a clear sky, during the 

 early part of the night. Then the sudden 

 extreme darkness which came on between 



10.30 p. M. and midnight must have 

 bewildered them so that they lost their 

 way. In their wanderings, they came 

 into the zone illuminated by the electric 

 lights of the city, and flew back and 

 forth over the lights until daybreak. — 

 L. B. Nice, Univeristy of Oklahoma, 

 Norman, Okla., Nov. 12, 1913. 



Snowy Owl at Chillicothe, Missouri 



About ten o'clock on the morning of 

 February 14, while passing through a 

 grove of small oak trees, I saw a large 

 white object among the leaves of one 

 of the trees. After observing it for a 

 few more minutes. I was able to identify 

 it as a Snowy Owl. A few days before, 

 we had a snowstorm followed by some 

 very cold weather, during which the Owl 

 had probably came southward. The 

 next day I heard another person speak 

 of seeing a large white Owl, which I sup- 

 pose was the same individual. — Desmoxd 

 PoPHAM, Chillicothe, Mo. 



The Voice of the Tinamou 



Having heard Tinamous calling at 

 nightfall in tropical forests on the Island 

 of Trinidad, I cannot help doubting if 

 anyone not an artist as well as an ornitholi- 

 gist, and no less gifted with pen than 

 brush, could possibly have characterized 

 their utterances in terms at once so true 

 and picturesque as those employed by 

 Mr. Fuertes, in a paragraph published in 

 the last number of Bird-Lore. Dealing 

 subjectively with a matter of uncommon 

 diflSculty, this remarkable passage is 

 essentially a word picture, sketched with 

 such rare and effective combination of 

 literary skill, artistic fervor, refined appre- 

 ciation of the spiritual in nature and 

 careful avoidance of all overstatement, 

 that it expresses precisely what every 

 reverent-minded naturalist must feel 

 when listening to the soul-stirring voice 

 of the Tinamou, however incapable he 

 may be then or afterward of rendering 

 his impressions into similarly worthy 

 language. — William Brewster, Cam- 

 bridge. Mass. 



