296 



General Notes. \ ^"^^ 



LJuly 



flew to a birch-branch within ten feet of the front of my tent, and stayed 

 there in full view for fifteen or twenty seconds, while my astonished eyes 

 took in its gleamingly white superciliary stripe, widely immaculate throat 

 and belly, buffy sides, and dark crown clearly' defined against a lighter 

 back. I could scarcely have had a more complete and convincing view 

 of a bright-plumaged southern Water-Thrush, inasmuch as its large bill 

 was the only distinctive point of which I did not manage to record a clear 

 image. I hurriedly got up and went to the house for a gun, and was 

 delighted to still hear the bird's ringing chip when I came out armed. 

 But though I heard it several times thereafter and twice saw it at a 

 distance, it proved extremely shy or restless and soon escaped me com- 

 pletely. No doubt this is too important a record to be accepted on such 

 insufficient evidence, and I must stand alone in my absolute conviction 

 that Seiurus motactlla has wandered to New Hampshire. 



The Philadelphia Vireo [Vireo fhiladelphicus), which is known as an 

 extremely rare visitant to Massachusetts, and has never been recorded 

 from the northwestern part of that State, seems to be a regular and not 

 very uncommon migrant in the vicinity of Mt. Monadnock, in the south- 

 western corner of New Hampshire. We have shot one in late May, 1897, 

 near Fitzwilliam, within a mile or two of the Massachusetts line, on the 

 south side of the mountain ; one in late September, 1899, at Dublin, on 

 the north ; and a third at the same place and season in 1900. Besides these 

 three, which are all preserved in our collection, we have seen and posi- 

 tively identified several others in the fall migration at Dublin. All these 

 we have seen were in the company of flocks of migrating warblers, in 

 scrubby second-growth along road-sides. 



Massachusetts. 



Since the finding of three nests of the small Shrike (be it migrans^ 

 excubitorides, or ludovicianus), by Mr. S- G. Tenney in Williamstown 

 several years ago, there does not seem to be any record of the bird's 

 occurrence in Berkshire County. It is therefore worth recording that on 

 August 18, 1900, I saw a brightly-plumaged small shrike on one of the 

 high pasture hills between Lanesboro and Berkshire village. The bird 

 flew from a low bush near me to the top of an elm tree, where I watched 

 it for several minutes. This is the only one I have seen in the region, 

 though I have found in the thorn-bushes of those hills several old nests 

 which seemed to be shrike nests. 



On August 15, 1900, a very large young Goshawk [Accipiter atricap- 

 illiis), in brilliantly mottled plumage, flew close past me on the heavy- 

 forest-bordered road low down on the eastern side of Hoosac Mountain, 

 just within the boundaries of Berkshire County. This is perhaps the 

 first summer record for the county. On August 21 of the same year, I 

 saw two Duck Hawks {Falco peregrinus anatiim) circling about over the 

 Cheshire reservoir, in the town of Lanesboro. 



