JOURNAI, OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 79 



in the Union in which it breeds, and while twenty-five years ago it 

 occupied no less than fifteen of our islands and ledges to breed upon, 

 it has been gradually reduced to the very verge of disappearance as 

 a breeding bird. (In winter it is abundant coming in hordes from 

 the Gulf of St. Lawrence and Labrador.) 



Every ornithologist and bird student in Maine should take a 

 personal pride in the fact that Maine still possesses this valuable and 

 beautiful duck, and a keen interest in this effort of the National 

 Association of Audubon vSocieties to preserve and increase its 

 numbers. Arthur H. Norton. 



The Lapland Longspur at Scarborough. — Apparently the 

 last specimen of this bird to be identified as occurring in Maine was 

 upon October 31, 1901, when five were taken at Pine Point (Journal 

 Me. Orn. Soc, VI, p. 44). 



In commenting upon the bird the belief was expressed that the 

 species would be found to be more frequent as a migrant than has 

 been supposed. Since that year little search has been made for it so 

 far as known. It was therefore very gratifying to be able to 

 determine the presence of the bird again at Pine Point (in Scar- 

 borough) on November 5, 1905, when Mr. Wm. H. Brownson, Mr. 

 J. F. Fanning and the writer found no less than four. 



Large numbers of Snow Buntings and a few Horned Larks 

 were present, and though the Longspurs mingled with these, they 

 seemed to prefer their own society and were at first found separate 

 from them. The first pair found was feeding with a Dunlin upon a 

 windrow of seaweed at the edge of high water mark, at high tide. 

 Later the habit (before recorded) of crouching by the side of a 

 tussuck, or other dark object upon the white sand, was again 

 noticed. In flight the birds are to be distinguished from the Larks 

 by smaller size, and by not having the undulating motion of the 

 latter, while the lack of any white in the wings, a decidedly darker 

 and rather shorter appearance will serve to distinguish them from 

 Snow Buntings. But with fall specimens of Calcarius and Passcrina 

 upon the ground, especially the young, the closest attention of the 

 observer will be necessary. With Otocoris there is little reason for 

 confusion at a reasonably long distance. 



The migration of the great bulk of the Longspur has been 

 shown to be to the westward of the Alleghany range, and only the 

 stragglers occur in New Kngland. (C. F. Howe, Auk XVIII, 

 page 396.) Arthur H. Noiiton. 



