General Notes. 131 



April 12, 44 c . Kingbird. 



April 13, 34°. Light frost. 



April 15, 68°. Chimney Swift. 



April 17, 64°. Crested Flycatcher, Cliff Swallow, Robins anl 

 Meadowlarks disappeared. 



April IS, 62°. Parula Warbler, Catbird. 



April 19, 60°. Whippoorwill (female), Yellow-breasted Chat, 

 Ruby-throated Hummingbird. 



April 20, 70°. Magnolia Wtarbler, American Redstart, Yellow- 

 bellied Sapsucker. 



April 21, 74°. Blue Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Yellow-throateJ 

 Vireo, Myrtle Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Ruby-crowned Kingk* 

 (the only bird seen this season). 



April 22, 64° Orchard Oriole, Nighthawk. 



April 24, 68°. Black-poll Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Rosp- 

 breasted Grosbeak (rare and irregular). 



April 28, 82°. Palm Warbler, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Bachmann's 

 Sparrow. 



April 30, 70°. Chuck-will's widow (rare). 



BIRD CASUALITIES. 



RY P. A. TAVERNER. 



The broken leg described in the October Auk (A Broken Pigeon'.- 

 Leg that Healed Itself. Page 412) suggests a Tennessee Warbler 

 that was taken here this fall by B. H. Swales. The bird in question, 

 when shot, had a fragment of a small twig projecting from its 

 forehead. On dissection it was found that the end of the twig 

 was imbedded in a cavity in the skull between the eyes and just 

 beyond the base of the bill. The bird appeared to be healthy, and 

 there was no inflammation in the injured parts. The twig was firm- 

 ly held in the position where it had been driven, and projected 

 from the skull nearly an eighth of an inch. 



I recall another bird, this time a Ruffed Grouse, taken by myself 

 in Muskoka, Ontario, in the fall of 1896. This was a very similar 

 case, but the twig had penetrated between the femur and the body, 

 and was between two and three inches long. Almost half its 

 length projected into the bcdy and it was covered with a waxy de- 

 posit that smoothed all its unevenness and so permitted free play 

 of the thigh along it. There was no inflammation, and the bird 

 seemed to be in gocd health at the time it was killed, but its worn 

 plumage bespoke hard times but shortly passed. The exposed 

 part of the twig was worn smooth and polished by friction with 

 surrounding objects. 



In both these cases the twigs pointed forward, and it is evident 

 that the injuries were sustained by flying into branches of trees. 

 Both birds were birds of the year. 



