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Tlie Mi of Tlie laine Oroilliological Society. 



A QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGY. 



^^BM protectioBj bird smdy^ the spiead of the knowledge thus ffainedj these are out objects/^ 



Vol. 



BANGOR, MAINE, JANUARY, 1899. 



No. 



Cbe lHatne Ornitbclodical Sccictv. 



O. W. Knight, M. S., Bangor, - - President 

 Wm. L. Powers, Gardiner, - Vice-Prejiideut 

 L. W. ROBBINS, Gardiner, - - Sec'y— Treas. 



C. H. MoRRELL, Pittsfield, Editor 



Prof. A. L. Lane, Waterville, - - Councilor 

 Capt. H. L. Spinney, Seguin, - - Councilor 



All subscriptions and business communications 

 should be sent to O. W. Knight, Publisher and 

 Business Manager, Bangor, Maine. 



All articles for publication must be sent to the 

 Editor. 



All communications requiring an answer must 

 he accompanied by stamps to prepay the reply. 



SUBSCRIPTION. 



25 Cts. per Year. Single number, 10 Cts. 

 Advertising rates furnished on application. 



(S&itorial. 



With this issue, in accordance with a 

 vote at the annual meeting, the Maine 

 Ornithological Society publishes an of- 

 ficial organ of its own, which will enable 

 it to print its papers and proceedings 

 in convenient form, free from the prox- 

 imity of other matter. Members of the 

 Society should regard the success of the 

 paper as a personal matter and are earn- 

 estly requested to contribute articles, 

 brief notes and items of news. Many 

 valuable notes are stored away in note 

 books, which would be of interest and 

 which we should be glad to publish. 



Original articles will be published in 

 each issue which will, we hope, be of 

 value to everyone interested in bird life 

 in the state and to ornithologists in gen- 

 eral. 



The specimens exhibited by Prof. 

 Lane at our meeting attracted much at- 

 tention. One was a Gry falcon which 

 has never been recorded, 1 believe. 

 Lacking specimens for comparison it is 

 difficult to distinguish these closely re- 

 lated forms with certainty, but after crit- 

 ical examination it was the consensus 

 of opinion that this was a Gryfalcon, 

 Falco rusticolus gryfalco. The exact lo- 

 cality and date of capture of this speci- 

 men is uncertain, but it is known to be a 

 Maine bird, and is the second specimen 

 of this variety to be taken in the state. 



Another specimen, a Pomarine Jaeger, 

 Stercorarius pomarinus, is of especial 

 interest, it being a Kennebec County 

 specimen, having been taken near 

 Waterville and brought to Prof. Lane in 

 the flesh. 



There has been an unusual scarcity of 

 winter birds up to the present time. I 

 have seen but one flock of Snowflakes 

 and none of the other winter birds us- 

 ually here. Other members report a 

 similar scarcity in their locality. Snow- 

 flakes are often of infrequent occurrence 

 during periods of little or no snowfall, 

 but they have never before been so 



