JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 87 



The birds that have nests around Poplar Tavern that I have seen 

 are Robins, Song Sparrows, Chipping; Sparrows, Phoebes, Hermit 

 Thrushes, Catbirds, Bluebirds, M3^rtle Warblers and Juncos. These 

 nests are all within two hundred feet of the Tavern. 



P. B. ROLFE. 

 North Newry, June 30, 1908. 



A Sparrow Hawk Wintering in Portland. — In the 

 March number of the Journal I recorded the appearance of a 

 Sparrow Hawk in the old Eastern Cemetery. This Hawk spent the 

 winter in Portland and its vicinity, making constant visits to the 

 spot where I first saw him. He always came between the hours of 

 eleven and twelve in the forenoon and a little after four o'clock in 

 the afternoon. The onl}- two places on w^hich I saw him alight w^ere 

 the top of a tall elm and a large stub which projected from the trunk 

 of a tree wdiich had been broken off. 



Much as I disliked this bold marauder, and glad as I should 

 have been to put an end to his career, had it been in ni}' power to 

 do so, I yet found a fascination in w^atching him, he w^as so abso- 

 lutely fearless, so cool and deliberate in all his movements. When 

 he brought his prey to the cemetery he always made straight for the 

 stub. At other times he w^ould come sailing through the air, alight 

 on the top of the elm for a moment or two to take a survey of his 

 surroundings, and then would wing his way across the principal 

 thoroughfare of the city as unconcernedly as if he were flying over 

 the trees of his native woods. 



It was his custom to fall to eating as soon as he reached the 

 stub, and his prey was quickly devoured, but on one occasion his 

 hunger had evidently been appeased and he was in a playful mood, 

 for he toyed with his victim, an English Sparrow, much as a cat 

 plays with a mouse. He lifted it and laid it down, turned it over 

 and around, and struck it with his beak in a lazy w^ay very different 

 from the savage blows he was wont to deliver. After doing this a 

 few times, he rose from the stub with the bird dangling from the 

 talons of his right foot, flew to an elm near by, and with much flut- 



