478 General Notes. nak 
Sparrow Hawks Nesting in a Bird House.— A pair of Sparrow Hawks 
have nested in a sort of a pigeon house that was built by a man on my 
place and fastened on top of a pole about 18 feet from the ground and 
placed in the middle of the chicken yard. It somewhat resembles a martin 
house, though the holes are larger. Of course, they have the house to 
themselves. It is located within 200 feet of a Martin house occupied by a 
large colony of these birds which are continually worrying the hawks 
when they return with food for the young. A week ago when I looked in 
the box there were three or four young ones covered with white down.— 
Wm. H. Brownine, New York, N. Y. 
Black Vulture in Massachusetts.— A female Black Vulture (Catha- 
rista urubu) was shot by Archer L. Pierce, Aug. 20, 1917, on the Burnham 
estate at the west end of Wenham, Mass. The bird was eating from a 
garbage pail at the time. The specimen has been sent to the Boston 
Society of Natural History.— Joun C. Puiuures, Wenham, Mass. 
Crow Roost near Boston, Pennsylvania.— For more than fifteen 
years there has been a large crow roost in the hilltops adjoining the 
borough of Boston, Pa. Recently a few hunters with shot guns have 
compelled the Crows to change their roost a distance of one fourth of a 
mile north to the hilltops of ‘‘ Deadman’s Hollow ” which brings it with- 
in about half a mile of the city limits of McKeesport. 
The writer succeeded in making a fair estimate of the number of birds 
gathering at the roost. Acres of trees blackened by masses of noisy crows 
is the usual impression that one gets from a visit to the winter night 
rendezvous. On March 10, 1916, the crows were driven out of the woods 
as they were gathering to roost whereupon they settled down over about 
100 acres of snow covered fields. There they were visible and estimating 
one crow to every 200 square feet, a very low safe estimate, an approxi- 
mate number of 20,000 crows was the result. 
The ground covered and other factors entering into the estimate depends 
upon the writer’s judgment as a civil engineer and surveyor. 
This year while taking our Christmas bird census for ‘ Bird-Lore’ 1,500 
crows were counted flying overhead down the Youghiogheny River to the 
roost. The vast bulk of the crows came from the other directions and the 
1,500 counted represent but a small percentage of the total number of 
crows.— THos. L. McConnetu, McKeesport, Pa. 
Evening Grosbeak ( Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina) at Springfield, 
Mass.— For the last few years the Evening Grosbeak appears to be a 
regular winter visitor to this region. If this bird is to continue to appear 
here during the colder months, it will be interesting to know when its 
coming and going may be expected. Last season in central Massachusetts 
