Io8 General Notes. [January 



The Kingbird in a New Role.— The following note is from the pen of 

 my friend, the Rev. Frank W. Ritchie, who has courteously permitted me 

 to publish it. 



"On the afternoon of June 15, 1884, I was walking near the bank of the 

 Massawipi River when mv attention was drawn to a pair of Crow Black- 

 birds by their cries of evident distress, and. upon looking to see the cause 

 of the outcry, observed, in a tree near by, a Crow with an almost fully 

 fledged Blackbird dangling from its beak. In a few moments afterwards 

 the Crow started across the river, the parents of its victim in hot pursuit. 

 and when about midway the stream was charged upon by a Kingbird with 

 such vigor that the young Blackbird was released, and half fell, half 

 fluttered in a slanting direction toward the shore, the Kingbird following, 

 and by flving under and against the youngster was evidently endeavoring 

 to assist it in reaching the shore. Some bushes intervened between me 

 and the birds, as they approached the water, and though I rushed down 

 quickly, to observe the end of this interesting scene, by the time I reached 

 the edge of the bank the birds had disappeared. As I could see nothing of 

 the young bird's body floating on the water, I concluded that the King- 

 bird had succeeded in its generous endeavor." — Montague Chamberlain, 

 St. John. N. B. 



Late Occurrence of the Phoebe (Sayornis fuscus) at Brewer. Maine. — On 



Nov. 23 (1SS4). "lien the snow here was six inches deep, and the Penob- 

 scot River frozen over above the dam, a Phoebe came into my garden and 

 remained a long time. As it was Sunday I did not shoot him, but there 

 is no doubt as to his identity, for mv daughter and I stood within a lew 

 feet of him and watched him catch insects over a smoking manure heap. — 

 Manly Hardy, Brewer, Maine. 



Hawk Owls in New England. — Although the months of October and 



November, 18S4. do not seem to have been characterized by anv special 

 meteorological phenomena, they will be long remembered by ornitholo- 

 gists and collectors throughout Northern New England from the fact that 

 they brought to this region a flight of Hawk Owls altogether unparalleled 

 in any previous year of which we have definite records. This inroad 

 seems to have begun late in October and to have lasted nearly through 

 November. It apparently extended over most of Northern Maine and 

 New Hampshire, but I have no evidence that it reached Massachusetts. 

 Some idea of the abundance of the birds majj be had from the fact (for 

 which I am indebted to Mr. Manly Hardy) that a single taxidermist in 

 Bangor, Maine (Mr. Bowler), received no less than twenty-eight freshly- 

 killed specimens in the course of a few weeks. Most of our Boston taxi- 

 dermists also had from three to six each (all from Northern Maine or 

 New Hampshire ), and at Lake Umbagog, Oxford County, Maine, I se- 

 cured four, shot respectively Oct. 25, Oct. 31, Nov. 15, Nov. 16. 



These figures doubtless represent but a small proportion of the total 

 number killed, for in the region over which the birds spread few persons 



