Vol. XXin General Notes. 200 



i9°5 J 



Yellow-legs [Totanus melanoleucus), Lesser Yellow-legs (T. Jlavipes), 

 Solitary Sandpipers (Helodromas solitarius), and Spotted Sandpipers 

 (Actitis macular ia). All but the last two kept near the mouth of the 

 river, or on the flat land along its lower reaches ; the Solitary Sandpiper 

 followed the stream up into what were formerly arrow-root fields, half or 

 three quarters of a mile from the sea, and the Spotted Sandpiper was 

 found well into the mountain forests. — Austin H. Clark, Boston, Mass, 



A Killdeer's Mishap. — February 10 last, while watching a large flock 

 of Killdeers on the golf links at Audubon Park, New Orleans, I came upon 

 one of the birds prostrate in an inch of water that had collected in a 

 depression as a result of continued rains. On examining the bird more 

 closely, I found its left leg was protruding into a crayfish hole of about 

 an inch and a half in diameter, and I had literally to tear the bird out to 

 liberate it from its captor, which was most likely a large crayfish. Any 

 more powerful animal, such as a musk rat, a turtle, or a ' blind eel ' 

 (Amphiuma means), would hardly have mutilated the leg in the way I dis- 

 covered to be the case when I was able to examine my prisoner critically. 

 The middle toe was nearly eaten off, while the muscles of the leg below 

 the knee were punctured and rather badly lacerated. How the Killdeer 

 ever made such a mistake as to step into the hole, and how the crayfish, if 

 it was such, had succeeded in catching the agile bird, were mere matters 

 of conjecture with me, but it was evident that the first grip had been upon 

 the toes, and that the captor, then dragging its prey further in, had caught 

 the leg higher up. This was the circumstance that pointed to the cray- 

 fish as being the culprit, for the gap between the two points of injury 

 were so far apart,— the length of the tarsus and half the length of the 

 leg below the knee. A large crayfish, with the resistance offered by the 

 sides of its hole, might well have had the grip that seemed at first so 

 astonishing. The bird was drawn down with its breast flush with the 

 ground, further than which, of course, the smallness of the aperture pre- 

 vented the bird's being dragged. There being nothing at hand with 

 which I could excavate the ground about the hole, I was unable to acquaint 

 myself more fully as to all the circumstances of this strange occurrence, 

 one that must have been cruelly trying to the bird. Further investigation 

 would probably have been useless anyhow, as the captor of the Killdeer, 

 after it had been forced to loosen its hold, no doubt retreated well into its 

 subterranean chambers. 



How long the bird had been in this situation was difficult to say. When 

 I released it from its awkward, not to say perilous, situation, it was almost 

 in a state of paralysis, from the combined effects of fear, pain, and being 

 held evidently for some time in the cold water, the day being rather chilly. 

 After I had taken it home, and had cleansed the wound, and kept the bird 

 in a warm room, it soon revived sufficiently to attempt a flight indoors. 

 I kept it overnight, however, and by next morning it had partially recov- 

 ered the use of the injured foot and leg, and stood upright, even if some- 



