354 General Notes. [^ 



going at intervals to peck at the apples, but spending the greater part of 

 the time upon the trunks of the trees. The vigorous way in which he 

 threw off great flakes of bark was amusing, and quite a quantity of bark 

 accumulated on the snow under the trees. Who shall say that this work 

 on the trees was not beneficial? One pretty habit which may be worth 

 noting is that while pecking at the apples he would often cling with his 

 feet to the apple he was eating and hang, head downward, as chickadees 

 so often do. 



On January 3, he was here the greater part of the forenoon, but about 

 noon there was a great commotion and we rushed to the window only to 

 see an impending tragedy. A Northern Shrike was chasing our Sapsucker. 

 Nearly two weeks elapsed during which time I grieved over the untimely 

 fate of the little feathered friend I was watching with so much interest, — 

 two weeks of extreme cold and of severe storms. On the afternoon of 

 January 16, however, he returned to his old haunts, eating apples and 

 hunting on the tree trunks alternately. He did not seem quite as strong 

 and active as before, owing, perhaps, to the severe weather of the previous 

 fortnight, the mercury having ranged from 28° to 32° below zero. 



It was interesting to me to notice on this occasion the perfection of his 

 protective coloring. The trunks of the trees were quite snowy with the 

 rather damp snow clinging to the bark and as the bird remained almost 

 motionless for some time on the trunk of an apple tree his spotted back 

 and the longitudinal stripes on his wings simulated the bark of the tree 

 with the snow upon it so as to almost defy detection. I could locate him 

 only with difficulty even though I knew just where to look. The next day 

 he came again and seemed as sprightly as ever and we also saw him 

 January 19-22, 2i and 31, February 2, 6 and 9, and March 1, 3, 5, 10, 12 

 and 20. He was also present April 2 and 5, after which date I surmise 

 that he went farther north. 



Since that year I have seen the Sapsucker only occasionally during the 

 migrations, the dates being approximately as previously given, in April 

 and October. — Harriet A. Nye, Fairfield Center, Me. 



A Crested Flycatcher injured by Swallowing a Grasshopper. — 

 At Royal Palm Hammock, Dade County, Florida, January 24, 1918, I 

 noticed a Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus) fluttering along the 

 road through the jungle, unable to fly. I caught it in my hand and found 

 it weak and much emaciated. Closer examination and dissection showed 

 a grasshopper's femur about an inch long in the abdominal cavity, the 

 larger end protruding for a distance of a quarter of an inch, but not having 

 punctured the skin. This leg had apparently been swallowed by the bird 

 and had worked through the wall of the stomach into the abdomen. 



I am indebted to Mr. Alexander Wetmore, of the Biological Survey, for 

 the following notes on the injury to the stomach: 



"Examination of the stomach showed a hole through the wall at the 

 extreme lower end of the ventriculus, slightly to one side, where the stomach 



