JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAI, SOCIETY. 33 



the edge of a swampy pond, and allowed me to approach within 

 half a dozen rods of him before he took wing. The same morning 

 a Baltimore Oriole was reported to me in a State street garden, 

 where he was observed by a number of interested bird students, 

 this being the first appearance of the bird this season. From 

 Westbrook, on the same day, came reports of the Redstart, Wil- 

 son's Warbler, and the Warbling Vireo, together with a' number 

 of other birds already seen in this vicinity. The Redstart was 

 also seen at the Cape by another observer. 



May 14. — This morning the sun shone for a few minutes 

 from a ribbon of clear sk}^ on the horizon, and then went into a 

 mass of thick clouds, which a couple, of hours later brought rain. 

 Robins were singing at three forty-five, before it was fairly light, 

 this being the season when their notes are the most spontaneous 

 and vigorous. The morning being very dark, it was not a good 

 time for birds, but quite a number of different species were ob- 

 served on a walk of a mile or two near the Cape woods. Many 

 Crows were flying about above the section of the woods where 

 they are accustomed to nest year after year. In the spring an odd 

 note is frequently heard from the Crow, and this morning it was 

 uttered by a bird almost directly over m}' head. It is a loud, high- 

 pitched, rapidly articulated group of sounds, somewhat resem- 

 bling a strident laugh, twice repeated. A quarter of a mile away, 

 on the side of a hill, where a quantity of straw had been scattered 

 upon a piece of plowed ground, I caught sight of a flock of Black- 

 birds, scarcely to be distinguished without the aid of my field 

 glasses. I crossed a wet meadow to reach this place, and then 

 the birds flew before I could get near enough to identify them. 

 As they took wing part of them looked like Bobolinks, while 

 plainly there were Bronzed Crackles and Redwinged Blackbirds, 

 with probably one or two other species. It took half an hour to 

 ascertain to a certainty what the birds were. It proved that there 

 were Bobolinks in the flock, for a little later I got quite near to 

 nine of these birds perched in a low tree, several of them singing 



