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JOURNAL OP MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



never drove them from their nest 

 to examine it, but watched my 

 chance when the female went to 

 stretch her wings, as she did each 

 morning during incubation." 

 Very truly, 

 Marie Kaiser Maddox." 

 Ellsworth Falls, Maine. 

 To obtain from such a careful ob- 

 server information regarding the life- 

 history of a pair of these birds, and to 

 have the period of incubation and 

 length of time the young birds re- 

 main in the nest and other valuable 

 information regarding their habits 

 given is something for which we are 

 very thankful. This gives us a posi- 

 tive record of the breeding of this 

 species in Maine, with an idea of 

 when and where to seek the nest. 



O. W. K. 



A Contented Whistler, even with 

 THE Temperature 40 Degrees 

 BELOW Zero. 



On Feb. 4, while your editor was in 

 Wilton, Franklin Co., Me., we heard 

 mentioned, a duck of some species 

 that had been left when the ducks 

 left for the coast and was now spend- 

 ing its time in feeding and floating on 

 a small patch of open water in the 

 river in the village. I at once went 

 to the place of business of an old 

 friend with whom we used to hunt 

 and| fish and one who was inter- 

 ested in the study of bird -life. His 

 clerk informed me that Mr. Bump 

 had gone down to an opening below 

 in the river to see the duck that was 

 spending the winter in the river. I 

 went down and found 'it leisurely 

 floating upon the water in a small, 

 open place, entirely surrounded by 

 ice. It proved to be an American 

 Golden eye — Glattcioneita clangula amer- 

 icana (Bonap.) It had been staying 

 in this small, open space all through 

 January and thus far in February at 

 no time, except one day, has the ther- 

 mometer registered above zero, and 

 ranging from that to 40 degrees be- 

 low. 



It seems to be a young male, which 

 perhaps the wing quills had not well 

 developed, and it had thus remained 

 behind. It was occasionally diving 

 and feeding, seemingly as contented 

 as it could be in summer. We ap- 

 proached very near to it, and it did 

 not seem to be more frightened than 

 would have been a domestigated bird. 



When we consider this bird remain- 

 ing all through the extremely cold 

 winter, with the thermometer down 

 day after day at from 20 to 30 de- 

 grees we wonder how it kept from 

 freezing. J. M. S. 



Notes by W. H. Bronson. 



January 10, at Pond Cove, Cape 

 Elizabeth, I saw three or four birds 

 which were not identified, except 

 that it was fully ascertained that they 

 had the sides streaked. The snow 

 was too deep for me to reach them. 

 On the 17th I was again there equipped 

 for wading in snow, and found that 

 the birds were myrtle warblers, Den- 

 droica Corona ta (Linn.) three in num- 

 ber. January 24th I took Mr. 

 J. F. Fanning and Mr. J. W. 

 Leathers, both members of the Maine 

 society, to the spot and showed the 

 warblers to them, the identification 

 being made more complete. January 

 31, in company with Mr Arthur H, 

 Norton, of Westbrook, and Mr. Leath- 

 ers, I again visited the place and the 

 warblers were still there, three of 

 them being fully identified, though we 

 could not count four beyond some 

 doubt, February 7th I was there 

 again and the warblers had not left. 

 February 14th Mr. Fanning, Mr. 

 Leathers and I saw a single myrtle 

 warbler at Cumberland foreside. Feb- 

 ruary 28 and March 6th I was at Pond 

 Cove, but it was stormy and windy 

 both days and I did not see the war- 

 blers. The spot where they were 

 found was adjacent to a field by the 

 edge of the ocean, containing many 

 weeds and a large growth of wax- 

 myrtle, on which the birds were 

 feeding. 



January 17th one song sparrow was 

 in company with the myrtle warblers. 

 Two robins have been constantly seen 

 at the Cape this winter, also one in 

 the city limits in company with a 

 flock of pine grosbeaks. Pine gros- 

 beaks have been plenty since early in 

 the fall. Bald eagles were common 

 early in the winter around the shores 

 of the bay. I saw one and another 

 was shot near the marine hospital, 

 giving I'ise to a little local controversy 

 as to whether they are protected 

 by law. 



February 21 I was at Pine Point; 

 saw a flock of American crossbills, 

 perhaps twenty individuals; a number 

 of horned larks, which lacked all 



