General Notes 163 



while just over a sand ridge, on the beach, were Spotted Sandpipers, 

 Sanderling, Semipalmated Plover, and a Turnstone. The big fel- 

 low was easily identified a little later as a Western Willet and 

 proved the least timid of the lot, remaining after all the rest had 

 flown, and running about in the shallow water. This was seem- 

 ingly done to startle his food into action so as to effect its capture. 

 Several large pollywogs, which he had drawn into shallow water, 

 were not taken, however, but seemed greatly to arouse his curi- 

 osity. The bird had to be purposely flushed in order to see the at- 

 tractive wing pattern, but he returned immediately, and I flushed 

 him suddenly again to hear his call, and succeeded. Later in the 

 day I found him unconsciously hunting the beach within a few 

 hundred feet of a large gathering of bathers. 



E. A. DOOLITTLE. 



Painesville, Ohio. 



SUMMER RECORDS FOR 1917. 



In northwestern Iowa weather conditions throughout April and 

 May were exceedingly unfavorable for seeing migrating bird. Sim- 

 ilar conditions in 1915 were followed by like results, making the 

 records for these months the poorest in a dozen years. In both 

 years the birds were halted somewhere south of my station, and 

 when their journey was resumed most of them hurried northward 

 without stopping. 



After a spring lacking in usual interests there has followed a 

 summer in which the birds have been more plentiful than any year 

 since 1910. This statement is based upon records of the species 

 seen daily in my own dooryard and its immediate neighborhood, 

 where forty-two species are known to have nested within recent 

 years. Some of these, such as the Sora, Western Meadowlark, 

 Grasshopper Sparrow and Chickadee are infrequent breeding birds, 

 the Cliff Swallow and Purple Martin are summer residents of the 

 past, the Blue Jay has become scarce, and of late the Sparrow Hawk 

 and Screech Owl are discouraged in every possible way from 

 nesting. 



For June and July, and for August to date (which is the 25th), 

 the daily average of species seen has been twenty-three, the high- 

 est number for any day being thirty-two, and the lowest thirteen. 

 The total number of species seen in these months on our place and 

 its near neighborhood is sixty, which is exactly two-thirds of the 

 number seen here this year. All but three of the breeding species 

 have been present, and in addition there have been twenty-one vis- 

 iting species. In size the variation has been great, ranging from 

 that of the Ruby-throated Hummingbird to that of the immature 



