V°|g„^^I] General Notes. 493 



As for the Short-billed Marsh Wrens, I have for two successive sum- 

 mers (1902 and 1903), found a single pair in a big, marshy brook-meadow 

 on the eastern side of the Dublin ridge (the western slope of the Peter- 

 boro valley water-shed). This marsh lies in the upper border of a large 

 extent of fertile meadow-country, very different from the Canadian belt 

 north of Monadnock, which includes the Yellow-bellies' swamp; although 

 the wrens' breeding place is only about two hundred feet lower than the 

 flycatchers'. Bitterns are common in the Marsh Wrens' swamp, and one 

 or two pairs of Black Ducks and thrice as many Wood Ducks still nest 

 along the stream which feeds it. Owing to the deplorable New Hamp- 

 shire law which permits the shooting of Wood Ducks and Upland 

 Plovers after August i, our scanty remnants of these two much-decimated 

 species are in yearly danger of annihilation. I speak for the Monadnock 

 region only. The Upland Plover {Bartramia) still breeds here and there 

 near Monadnock, both in meadows and in upland pastures, but its num- 

 bers have been greviously reduced. 



Northern Pileated Woodpeckers are tolerably common on and near 

 Monadnock, and they seem to be increasing rather than falling off. In 

 1902 my father and I found a Pileated's nest, seventy feet up in a dead 

 yellow birch stump. The three or four young left the nest about 

 June 12. 



The summer avifauna of the Monadnock region is really unusually 

 rich for north-central New England. In one early summer season I have 

 found one hundred and six breeding species on the north side of the 

 mountain, all but two or three of them within the limits of the town of 

 Dublin. 



The remarkably bitter winter of i903-'04 was full^' heralded in New 

 England by a copious and early influx of northern birds, as everyone 

 remembers. At Monadnock the warning was exceedingly pronounced. 

 On October 6, I found a Hudson Bay Titmouse low down on the north 

 side of the mountain, in a band of Chickadees. The little fellow, who 

 revealed himself to me by his notes, responded vehemently to my 

 'squeaking,' and flitted about within a few yards of my head, so that I 

 had a perfect chance to inspect him. 



Pine Grosbeaks appeared on October iS, and were at once abundant, 

 continuing so throughout the autumn and early winter (I left the region 

 in December). Snow Buntings appeared on the same day, and large 

 flocks of Redpoll Linnets arrived a few weeks later. Siskins and both 

 kinds of Crossbills were also more or less common through the last half 

 of the autumn. 



During a long and heavy northeasterly storm, which ended on October 

 12 or 13, Dublin Pond was visited by at least eight kinds of sea-birds ; 

 namely, the three species of Scoters, a Herring Gull, a Phalarope (prob- 

 ably the Northern, — we did not shoot it), the Red-throated Loon, and 

 the Horned and Holboell's Grebes. Of the Black Scoters there came at 

 least a hundred, mainly in one big flock ; of the White-winged about 



