iqS memoirs of the nuttall ornithological club. 



irregular intervals and in very limited numbers. The nearest approach to a 

 pronounced flight of which we have definite knowledge was that which took 

 place in 1842- 1843, when, according to Dr. Samuel L. Abbot,^ no less than 

 seven birds were obtained within the hmits of our State. Several specimens 

 have been taken near Boston, but only two, I believe, in the region treated in 

 the present Memoir. The first of these was originally reported, by Dr. Samuel 

 Cabot, at a meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History, held on F"ebruary 

 3, 1847, as having been " procured lately, by Prof. Agassiz " and " shot .... in 

 Cambridge." ^ The other, a male now in my collection, was killed on February 

 22, 1898, in Payson Park, Belmont. The circumstances attending the capture 

 of the latter bird were noted by me at the time, as follows : — 



Mr. R. B. Malone, who lives in the Park, heard Crows making a great out- 

 cry there during the whole forenoon. They kept increasing in numbers until, as 

 he thinks, upwards of one hundred were assembled. Their clamor finally became 

 so loud and incessant as to annoy him seriously, and soon after dinner he took a 

 'Flobert rifle' and went out to disperse them. Near his house is a row of tall 

 Norway spruces, behind this an old apple orchard, and just beyond the orchard 

 a dense growth of Norway spruces, larches and arbor vitces encircling an open 

 space, in the middle of which are the stables and paddock of the fine old Cush- 

 ing estate. A circular driveway passes under and among the trees, which aver- 

 age fifty or sixty feet in height. Between the driveway and the paddock, in the 

 middle of the thickest spruces, stands a white pine — a vigorous tree with a full 

 green top but dead lower branches. As Mr. Malone approached the spruces he 

 saw great numbers of Crows perched in or flying just above them. A little 

 later a woman, who had come from a neighboring farmhouse, impelled by curi- 

 osity to find what the Crows were about, called to him that she had found a 

 great Owl and asked him to shoot it. On going to the spot he at once saw the 

 bird perched in an erect position about twenty-five feet above the gi"ound on one 

 of the lower branches of the pine and looking " as big as an eagle." It stared at 

 him fixedly, with its yellow eyes wide open, but showed no alarm at his presence 

 although he went almost directly under the branch on which it was sitting. 

 After watching it for a few moments, he fired at it but missed. At his second 

 shot the bird flew across the paddock and alighted on the end of a spruce limb. 

 It proved to be badly wounded and soon fluttered down to the ground, where it 

 stood on the defensive, presenting so menacing an appearance that he did not 

 venture to touch it for several minutes. It died a few hours later, and was taken 

 to Mr. M. Abbott Frazar from whom I afterwards purchased the skin. 



1 [S. L. Abbot,] Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, I, 1843, 99- 

 ' [S. Cabot,] Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History, II, 1847, 206. 



