journal of maine ornithoivogicai. society. ' 23 



Effect of Sudden Cold on thk White-bellied Swal- 

 low {Iridoprocnc bicolor). — I am indebted to Mr. Edward Read, of 

 Cambridge, Mass.. for the following information : During a fishing 

 trip at Grand Lake, Washington County, Me., in the last week of 

 May, 1906, the weather turned suddenlj' cold, the thermometer 

 registering below the freezing point for several days. During this 

 time Mr. Read states that the Swallows could be picked up on the 

 beach and paths leading to the lake, in a thoroughly benumbed 

 condition. Late one afternoon every inch of space on a wire screen 

 covering an open window in the second story of a cabin, used as the 

 cook house, was literally covered with Swallows, huddled together 

 like a swarm of bees. While they had the benefit of such warmth 

 as emanated from the window, they were still sufficiently chilled as 

 to allow one of the guides to scoop many of them into a landing net. 

 They were then brought into the building, where they were kept 

 warm, and liberated the following morning. 



Several years ago, while shooting on the Kankakee River in 

 Indiana, the temperature suddenly fell one night and ice formed on 

 the marshes before morning. The White-bellied Swallows had 

 arrived in considerable numbers during the week, and that morning 

 I found them sitting on the lower branches of dead trees, in some 

 cases ten or a dozen closely packed together. They were so 

 benumbed with the cold that when I tapped the branch, only a few 

 feet over my boat, with my paddle, not one took flight. During the 

 next few hours the rays of the sun evidently revived them, for when 

 I again passed the location most of them had flown. 



RUTHVEN DeANE. 



Chicago, 111., Jan. 15. 



Two Rake Birds. — I have lately received a young Little Blue 

 Heron in the white young plumage, shot at Machias; al.so a Wood- 

 cock, with pure white tail and mottled all over with white. 



Manly Hardy. 



Brewer, Jan. 15. 



