General Notes 59 



General Notes 



DESTRUCTION OF BIRDS BY TRAINS 



George O. Ludcke, of Sioux City, reports a singular instance 

 of the fatality which besets bird life. On October 11, 1919, he was 

 proceeding by rail from Sioux City to a point in South Dakota for 

 the purpose of shooting ducks. Having a personal acquaintance 

 with the engineer of the train, he was invited to ride in the engine 

 cab for a part of the journey. The trip being made at night, the 

 track ahead of the engine was illuminated by the powerful rays 

 of the electric headlight which is required by the law of South 

 Dakota. As the locomotive rushed through the darkness, Mr. 

 Ludcke observed in the light ahead of it great numbers of small 

 birds, apparently aroused from the grass and weeds along the 

 right of way by the noise of the passing train. It can be con- 

 jectured, also, that the birds may have been in migratory flight. 

 However it may be, many of them, bewildered by the dazzling 

 light of the locomotive, flew directly into it and were struck by 

 the engine. Numbers of the birds struck the window glass of the 

 engine cab with an impact almost sufficient to break it. In this 

 way, Mr. Ludcke estimates, hundreds of birds were killed during 

 the short time he was in the engine cab. He inquired of the 

 engineer if such a v thing were of frequent occurrence, and was 

 told that birds often were killed in that manner, but not fre- 

 quently in such numbers as on this particular occasion. The 

 question immediately occurs, if this one train killed so many birds, 

 how many other birds are similarly killed by the thousands of other 

 trains which bear through the night everywhere during the mi- 

 gratory seasons? Mr. Ludcke is not certain about it, but he 

 judges from the brief glimpses he had of the birds seen that the 

 greater number of them were Prairie Horned Larks. 



A. F. ALLEN. 

 Sioux City, la., Nov. 10, 1919. 



WINTER WREN IN WESTERN IOWA 



The Winter Wren (Nanmis Memalis Memalis) is a rare vis- 

 itor in this locality, and there are few existing records of it. The 

 only local records that I have knowledge of are those of Dr. G. C. 

 Rich, who recorded it on March 11, 1908, and April 4, 1909. No 

 record of the species breeding here has been established. An 

 individual (sex not determined) was seen in the outskirts of 

 Stone Park, Sioux City, on October 5, 1919. It first attracted at- 

 tention by its call note, uttered repeatedly while the bird was 



