478 General Notes. [^^!j^ 



torrent of rain which is seldom exceeded in force or quantity. The down- 

 pour continued with but little cessation until 3:55 A M. the following day, 

 during which time 3.30 inches of rain fell. No hail accompanied the storm 

 and the temperature averaged 72°. The storm was evidently more severe 

 in certain sections of the city, as the Superintendents of some of the parks 

 and cemeteries have communicated that the destruction of Sparrows was 

 not noticeably large. The daily papers reported that two thousand were 

 gathered and buried by the school children in the vicinity of West 60th 

 and Ada Streets. Of this I have no authentic record, but 1 am much in- 

 debted to Mr. Luther E. Wyman for an account of his personal observa- 

 tions which were made the morning following the storm. Mr. Wyman 

 writes : 



"An unusual disaster to bird life came in the form of the terrific storm 

 that visited Chicago and vicinity on the night of Aug. 11th. On the fol- 

 lowing morning residents of the West and South sides, where the storm 

 was most severe, reported great numbers of dead sparrows on walks and 

 pavements. In the vicinity of 64:th Street and Harvard Avenue the de- 

 struction was so severe that an observer states there were not enough 

 sparrows left on the following night ' to make a cheep.' 



"My own observations were confined to Garfield Park, where they roost 

 in great numbers. Here I found them dotting the grass under the trees, 

 but massed around the trunks of the larger trees, though many lay even 

 under such dense-growing shrubs as the lilac. The majority, however, 

 were found within eighteen inches of the tree trunks, most numerous on the 

 side away from the wind, and of these probably ninety per cent, lay with 

 heads toward the trees, as though when beaten from the branches by the 

 rain they had instinctively fluttered toward the trunk, or had hopped 

 toward it in the grass, only to be actually drowned by the incessant down- 

 pour. The area I examined would cover probably less than a third of a 

 city block, yet I found upward of a thousand birds, all sparrows but one, — 

 a young robin. A Yellow Warbler, however, that has haunted this section 

 all summer, escaped the storm, as evidenced by his cheerful song." — 

 RuTHVEN Deane, Chicw, '11. 



Swainson's Warbler and Chuck-wiU's-widow Breeding North of James 

 River, Virginia. — On the 31st of May, 1908, I found the nest and three 

 eggs of the Swainson's Warbler {Helinaia swainsonii) in W^arwick Co., 

 Virginia. The location was about thirty feet from the head of a 

 mill pond, in some second growth bushes in a clearing in woods. The 

 nest was placed between two upright main branches of the bush, about 

 5 J feet above the ground, and composed of dry birch leaves, fine weed 

 stems and seed tops, lined with very fine rootlets and straws. Both birds 

 were very tame and kept up a constant chipping while the nest and eggs 

 were being securely packed away. Visiting this locality again two weeks 

 later in hopes to find that a second attempt at breeding had been made, 

 I was not disappointed by finding a new nest similarly located not far 



