80 General Notes. \ '^ uk 



myself from Mr. Fred Foster, a taxidermist in Victoria, British Columbia, 

 we found a single specimen of this species in first winter plumage. On 

 the tag was written only " March 18/98. c?.," and I wrote Mr. Foster 

 asking him whether he remembered the bird and could tell me where it 

 was taken. He replied, "The Eagle marked March 18/1898 is the young 

 Bald Eagle (or gray eagle) ; all the eagles were taken on the coast of Van- 

 couver] Island." 



Thanks to Dr. Dwight, this skin is now in my collection. It is in the 

 same plumage as the young Gray Sea Eagle found dead on Unalaska, Oct. 

 5, 1899, which I recorded in ' North American Fauna,' No. 19, pp. 73, 74. 

 The range of this species is thus extended almost to Washington, and it 

 seems probable that it will yet be found breeding in Alaska or the Aleu- 

 tian Islands. — Louis B. Bishop, New Haven, Conn. 



The Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker in Melrose, Mass. — On October 

 22, 1904, in Melrose, Middlesex County, Mass., a fine male Arctic Three- 

 toed Woodpecker {Picoides arctic us) was seen by Mr. M. C. Blake of 

 Brookline and the subscriber. Subsequently he moved into Pine Banks 

 Park in Maiden, but a short distance from where he was first found, and 

 remained there eighteen days, being seen repeatedly by myself and 

 others up to November 8. He worked upon the dead pine trees which 

 unfortunately have been killed in this region by the Gypsy moths. — 

 Horace W. Wright, Boston, Muss. 



Wintering of the Red-headed Woodpecker at Detroit, Michigan. — 

 An interesting feature of the extremely severe winter of 1903-1904 was 

 the wintering of the Red-headed Woodpecker {Melanerpes erythrocefhalus) 

 in large numbers at Belle Isle, the island park of Detroit, situated in the 

 Detroit River slightly above the city. On my many trips there during 

 December, January, and February, on some of the coldest days of the win- 

 ter, I never failed to find these birds active, energetic, and almost as noisy 

 as in mid-summer. Covered as these woods were with deep snow from 

 December 1, sometimes two or more feet deep, and crusted, it is a matter 

 of interest to me as to what influences this bird to winter here in numbers, 

 and to be entirely absent from the mainland in Wayne, and surrounding 

 counties. I cannot account for the fact that during some winters the 

 Red heads remain in numbers at Belle Isle, in others are entirely absent. 

 During the winter of 1902-1903 no birds remained ; long and frequent 

 search failed to reveal them either here or on the mainland. The abun- 

 dance of their food supply — acorns for the most part — without doubt 

 determines the wintering of this species, and yet what food could not 

 have been found in as great an abundance and with more ease during the 

 comparatively mild winter of 1902-1903 as during the intense cold and 

 deep snow of 1903-1904? The few birds I have met with on the main- 

 land were single birds residing in a certain tree throughout the win- 

 ter. — Bradshaw H. Swales, Detroit, Mich. 



