^°190S^^] General Notes. 323 



land as an announcement of the whereabouts of the author. After rang- 

 ing over the trees in the immediate neighborhood the titmouse returned 

 to the rail-fence and there seemed to find much to its Uking for in a short 

 time its beak was crammed with moths and flies. Taking wing, it flew in 

 the same direction as before, straight for the hea^'ier part of the woods. 

 Following rapidly after it, the nest was discovered in the dead and broken 

 branch of a stately elm, some 50 or 60 feet from the ground. An old, 

 abandoned woodpecker's cavity had been appropriated and filled, as far 

 as could be ascertained through the glass, with dried grass, etc. It was 

 utterly impossible to reach the nest without the aid of climbing-irons and 

 of these none were at hand. 



Although we waited about the \'icinity of the nesting-tree for over half 

 an hour the titmouse would not return but circled about among the sur- 

 rounding trees, calling now in low whistles and then again in clear, defiant 

 tones. Long after we had left the place we could still hear the notes. 

 Only one bird was observed about the place and, judging from the clear 

 coloration of the phmiage and the frequent whistling, it would be safe to 

 say that the one imder observation was the male. Such being the case 

 the female was either absent entirely from the nest or vicinity or was en- 

 gaged with brooding and was being fed by her mate. The large size of the 

 insects taken to the nest would point to the latter conclusion. Similar 

 traits of character have been observed in the common Chickadee by Mr. 

 N. A. Wood, and they would not be impossible in this species. — A. D. 

 Tinker, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



Massachusetts Records.^ I have lately received for the Thoreau Mu- 

 seum of Natural History a female Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaetos) taken 

 by a farmer, Mr. Jacob Williams, ten miles northwest of Richmond, on No- 

 vember 28, 1906, and presented to this Museum by Messrs. D. P. & J. E. 

 P. Morgan; a male American Goshawk (Accipiter atricapillus) , taken by 

 Mr. William Francis in January, 1908, in the Hoar Woods, Concord, Mass.; 

 and a male Prairie Homed Lark (Otocorys alpestris praticola), taken by 

 Mr. F. MacDonald Barton on February 19, 1908, on the school grounds, 

 out of a fiock of eight or ten. It seems probable that the inland flocks of 

 Shores Larks are for the most part of this species. Though no others out 

 of this or other flocks common here have been shot, they appear through 

 the glass to be praticola. — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., Concord, Mass. 



Early Nesting Records from Washington State. — The following per- 

 sonally taken records were made by me this spring in the vicinity of 

 Tacoma, Pierce Co., Wash. 



March 30th : Besides a large number of decoy nests, I found one nest of 

 the Tule Wren containing two fresh eggs. On the same date I also found a 

 nest of the Virginia Rail containing four eggs. The two nests were not 

 fifty feet apart. When I went to collect these sets on April 6, I found two 



