^°1908^^] General Notes. 83 



hawks, presumably the Broad-winged. I enclose a letter from Mr. Kirk 

 Munroe, the author, stating what he saw, and give you my own statement 

 of what I saw myself, my estimates being, in all cases, moderate, and the 

 numbers in some cases being from actual count. The birds were in most 

 cases circling, in some cases sailing straight forward, a beat of the wings 

 being extremely rare. As, in clear weather, the birds were very high, and 

 in bad weather the light was very poor, I will not insist too strenuously 

 upon my identification of the hawks as the Broad-winged, but I am sub- 

 stantially certain. The flocks were moving, in the main, from northeast 

 to southwest, but parts of some of the flocks turned off to the west. 



The flocks were accompanied, or followed, occasionally, by Red-shoul- 

 dered Hawks; once or twice, apparently, by Fish Hawks; twice by Marsh 

 Hawks, and once by an Eagle. 



The flocks seen by me, then, numbered as follows: — Sept. 15, 30; Sept. 

 16, 15; Sept. 17, 11 and 30; Sept. 20, 35, 35, 50, 66, 10, 23, 50, 15, 40; 

 Sept. 21, 30. 



Those seen by Mr. Munroe, as will be noticed, were seen mostly on a day 

 when I saw none, thus making the grand total very large. It may be that 

 what we saw was not unusual, and therefore not worthy of special notice; 

 but if it was at all out of the common, your readers will, no doubt, like to 

 hear of it. — Robt. Barbour, Montclair, N'. J. 



[Mr. Munroe 's letter to Mr. Barbour, referred to above, is as follows:] 



Dear Mr. Barbour: — A few days since: or to be more explicit, on 

 the 18th inst., while on a w^alking trip to the Ice Caves of the Shawangunk 

 Mountains near Ellenville, N. Y., in company with three Columbia College 

 boys, I witnessed a most astonishing migratory flight of Broadwinged(?) 

 Hawks concerning which I should like some further information. 



When our attention was attracted to the birds we had come out from 

 the caves and were eating our lunch on the summit of a rocky ridge from 

 which we had an uninterrupted view of the sky as well as of a vast extent 

 of territory on either side. The forerunners of the migration were a few 

 stragglers that only caused comment by their undeviating and unhesitat- 

 ing southward flight. These leaders were, however, quickly followed by 

 other birds in ever increasing numbers until the marvellous flight extended 

 as far as the eye could reach to the eastward; and upwards to a point 

 where the great birds appeared no larger than so many sparrows. 



When the hawks first aroused curiosity by their nmnbers, one of my 

 companions undertook to count them; but having counted fifty in less 

 than one minute, he gave over the attempt, and was glad to have done so 

 when, at the end of an hour the incredible flight still continued without 

 pause or diminution. 



I cannot venture even to guess how many hawks passed above us during 

 that time; but know that they nvimbered well up among the thousands, 

 and I write to ask if ever before you heard of a hawk migration on so vast 

 a scale? 



