Vol 'i9^ XV ] General Notes. 219 



end where there was a short stretch of alders and scrub oak killed by a rise 

 of the water at one time and it was at the edge of this slight protection that 

 the nest was built. It was the usual mass of decaying vegetation, reeds, 

 grasses, etc., and was attached to several of the alders as the water under it 

 was two feet deep. When found, the eggs were entirely covered from sight 

 and no birds were seen, although one bird was heard calling nearby. I 

 had always regarded this species here as a migrant only and would never 

 have searched for a nest had I not been attracted by the suspicious fact 

 that this pair of birds could always be found at this particular part of 

 the pond. They were first seen the 17th of April and when the first week 

 in May passed and they were still daily in evidence, their presence could 

 no longer be casually overlooked. This is, I believe, the first definite 

 breeding record for this species in the State. — Thos. D. Burleigh, State 

 College, Pa. 



A Red-throated Loon on Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Boston, Mass. — 

 In the early afternoon of February 7, 1918, while I was observing the ducks 

 on Chestnut Hill reservoir, a bird came on the wing from the westward 

 which upon alighting on the water was seen to be a Red-throated Loon 

 (Gavia stellata). After taking its bearings for a few minutes, it began to 

 swim and dive in the ample area of open water about the intake, which 

 even during the very severe weather of the present winter has been of 

 considerable extent, affording a wintering place for Mergansers, Black 

 Ducks, a few Golden-eyes, and recently a Ruddy Duck. At the time the 

 sky was clouded, wind northeast, and the temperature about 24°. Two 

 days later Mr. Barron Brainerd with Mr. Talbot found this loon still 

 present. But when I visited the reservoir on the 11th, it was not there. 

 The area of open water had been diminished almost half by a formation 

 of thin ice around its borders and had become, perhaps, inadequate to the 

 loon's sense of sufficiency. I am informed that Mr. Talbot noted the 

 absence of this loon on the 10th. 



This was my first record of a Red-throated Loon on a pond, lake, or 

 reservoir. I find that Mr. William Brewster reports but one occurrence 

 in his 'Birds of the Cambridge Region' [1906], that of a young male shot 

 in Fresh Pond by Mr. Ruthven Deane on October 21, 1871. The species is 

 not uncommon in winter along the seacoast of New England, and in its 

 fall migration is rather common. Dr. C. H. Townsend in his 'Birds of 

 Essex County' [1905] states, "The Red-throated Diver is a lover of salt 

 water, very rarely, in Essex County, entering the fresh-water ponds and 

 rivers." Dr. J. C. Philips in an article on 'Ten Years of Observation on 

 the Migration of Anatidse at Wenham Lake, Massachusetts,' (Auk, vol. 

 XXVIII, April, 1911, p. 197) says concerning the Red-throated Loon, 

 "Rare in the pond. The only specimen in my collection is a female 

 marked Wenham Lake, October, 1906." Dr. Glover M. Allen in 'Birds of 

 New Hampshire' [1903] gives two records of individuals taken in the 

 interior of the State in the autumns of 1876 and 1886 respectively, and 



