JOURNAL OF MAINE ORNITHOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



65 



Hawk was brought to him for identi- 

 fication that was shot Nov. 27, 1902, 

 in Freeman, a nearby town in Frank- 

 lin County. 



NOTES FROM PORTLAND AND 

 VICINITY. 



Mr. W. H. Brownson of Portland 

 writes the Journal that he has re- 

 cently visited the colony of Black 

 Crowned Night Herons at Falmouth 

 and that it is still flourishing. The 

 birds now build in the tops of the 

 tallest trees. Several pairs of Olive 

 sided Flycatchers — L'on/opns boriuilis — 

 (Swains) are spending the summer in 

 the Cape Elizabeth woods. These 

 woods were very prolific of Warbler 

 life during the present spring, he 

 counting no less than 19 distinct 

 species during their migrations. 



While others are wondering at the 

 scarcity of our old friends, the 

 Cowbirds — Molo/fims .//tv— ( Bodd), this 

 keen observer noted during the last 

 days of April a flock of some 25 on 

 the "Cape," where they remained 

 several days. 



He chats interestingly with us as 

 follows: 



"It gives me pleasure to report a 

 pair of Crested Flycatchers and a 

 promising family at Douglas Hill, in 

 the town of Sebago, this county. I 

 recently spent a couple of days there 

 with a party of friends, all bird lov- 

 ers, and within half an hour after our 

 arrival we discovered the Flycatchers 

 and a little later their nest, which 

 was in a hole in an apple tree not 

 forty feet from the piazza of the hotel. 

 It was about seven feet from the 

 ground and all in the party had a 

 chance by means of a step-ladder to 

 inspect the nest, which contained 

 several young birds, the exact number 

 not being ascertained on account of 

 the dept of the hole and the wish not 

 to disturb the old birds. I sat more 

 than an hour one morning and watch- 

 ed the birds bringing food to their 

 family, one staying at the nest while 

 the other went afield, and taking 

 turns in the labor of caring for the 

 young. 



In the woods near by at this same 

 place we found Juncos with young, 

 and watched the old birds feeding a 

 little one. This is a fairly high eleva- 

 tion on the side of the Douglas 

 mountain, which probably account 



for the juncos breeding in this local- 

 ity. Several yellow-billed Cuckoos 

 were seen only a few miles away on 

 the road to Baldwin. 



Last year in Scarboro on the top of 

 Scottow's hill a colony of purple Mar- 

 tins nearly all starved to death during 

 a long spell of continuous rainy 

 weather. Just one pair of the birds 

 was left and this year just one pair 

 has come to the martin house. I 

 have little doubt that they are the 

 same pair. In the martin house a 

 pair of English Sparrows are living 

 and in the rear of the same bird house 

 a pair of tree Swallows are evidently 

 breeding." 



THE RED HEADED WOODPECKER 



{Aft'lanerp(s erylhroceplialus {Linn.) 

 AT CAPE ELIZABETH, MAINE. 

 May 15, at Cape Elizabeth, in com- 

 pany with Mr. Arthur H. Norton, of 

 Westbrook, I saw a red-headed wood- 

 pecker in full plumage. Last fall I 

 saw one in the same locality, but it 

 was in immature plumage, with head 

 and breast brown instead of red. 

 This year the red -head staid more 

 than a week where Mr. Norton and 1 

 first found it and a number of observ- 

 ers were able to find it on being di- 

 rected to the locality. Later a red- 

 head was reported to me from Dia- 

 mond island, perhaps two miles 

 farther north, and it was very likely 

 the same bird, but with it was also 

 another showing immature plumage, 

 probably a bird of last year, and a 

 mate to the other. I have not been 

 informed whether they have been 

 observed to be breeding. 



W. H. Brownson, 

 Portland, Me., June 22, 1904. 



NESTING OF THE MEADOW 

 LARK IN WINTHROP, ME. 



Early in June my cousin from Port- 

 land was visiting in Winthrop and 

 while strolling through a large field, 

 he came across the nest and fiushed 

 the bird, which he thought must be a 

 Meadow Lark. He showed the nest 

 to us and it was, sure enough, a 

 Meadow Lark's with five eggs in it. 

 The nest was built as usual, with the 

 covering over it. The Meadow Lark 

 is getting to be a rather common 

 nester in the Kennebec Valley in this 

 State.— Ed. 



