338 General Notes. [} ae 
Prairie Horned Lark (Otocoris alpestris praticola) Nesting at Newbury, 
Mass.— On August 4, 1908, I discovered this species in a low brood tract, 
a short distance outside the city limits, locally known as ‘Common Pas- 
ture.’ This is nearly level, clayey, open pasture land extending from the 
rolling coastal hills on the west, down to the border of the salt-marshes, 
with an area of about two square miles, a region which I should think was 
well suited to the tastes and habits of this bird. 
On this date I saw a single lark, in company with Vesper Sparrows, 
along the roadside, and for several days following noted the same bird in 
about the same locality, mingling freely with the sparrows, or alone. 
Each season since 1908 I have found this species in about the same place. 
During the earlier years I saw rarely more than two or three birds but of 
late they have increased in numbers. In June, 1915, I found, and fre- 
quently saw throughout the remainder of the month and during early July 
two adults and five immature birds, which would seem to indicate their 
breeding here. 
During the season of 1916, necessary attention to business precluded 
my searching for more substantial evidence of their breeding. The birds 
were present however throughout the greater part of the summer and I 
saw what were probably individuals from this family on one or two occa- 
sions in one of the neighboring towns. Apparently they have become 
regular summer residents.— S. W. Battery, Pittsfield, Mass. 
Starlings Nesting near Washington, D. C.— A pair of Starlings 
have taken up their abode in a locust tree on my place, eight miles north 
of Washington, D. C., and at the present date (25th of April, 1917) have 
young in the nest. I should be very glad to learn if others have noted 
Starlings nesting this year south of Pennsylvania. In this connection I 
would add that the male bird utters the notes that sound like a coarser 
and lower rendering of the Wood Pewee’s usual three-note phrase, con- 
cerning which there was some comment in ‘ Bird-Lore’ for March—April, 
1911. This is the first time I have heard this utterance of the Starling, 
but from the pitch and quality of the notes I feel no hesitation in ventur- 
ing the opinion that the phrase is normal with the bird and not an imita- 
tion of the Wood Pewee.— Henry Oupys, Silver Spring, Maryland. 
A Pennsylvania Starling Roost.— For some years past an enormous 
flock of English Starlings has roosted in the evergreens at ‘ Aldie,’ the estate 
of Mr. William R. Mercer, on the outskirts of Doylestown and during 
the winter of 1915-16 a number of Purple Grackles associated with them, 
being ‘ resident ’ for the first time within my experience. 
The flock of Starlings presents the most interesting bird phenomenon 
I imagine, since the disappearance of the Passenger Pigeon. My attention 
was first called to the birds by the late Arthur Chapman, member of the 
Board of Game Commissioners of Pennsylvania, whose residence farm 
adjoined ‘ Aldie.’ He estimated that there were a million birds in the 
