98 General Notes. [^ a u n k 



perhaps the most attentively examined by bird students and sportsmen, it 

 has not heretofore been recorded as a nesting bird there. 



Giraud wrote seventy years ago (Birds of Long Island, N. Y., 1844) of 

 this species on Long Island in his pleasing manner; of its habits and com- 

 parative scarcity, but makes no mention of its nesting. George N. Law- 

 rence in his ' Catalogue of Birds observed on New York, Long and Staten 

 Islands, and the adjacent parts of New Jersey,' merely lists the bird, without 

 remark of any sort. Mr. Dutcher's notes on the buds of Long Island in 

 Chapman's ' Handbook ' 1894, and subsequent editions mention no record 

 of its breeding, but give its status as " common transient visitant." 



In my ' List of Birds of Long Island ' (Abstr. Proc. Linn. Soc. of N. Y., 

 1907) I also gave its status as a common transient visitant, recording the 

 limits of its occurrence, observed and collected to that time, in spring, 

 April 16 (Sheepshead Bay) to May 5 (Montauk); autumn, August 4 

 (Shinnecock) to December 11 (Rockaway). I may say that data since 

 collected have extended the spring arrival nearly a week earlier, i. e. to 

 April 10 (1909, Seaford). 



The actual discovery of a nest, eggs and young of the American Bittern 

 on Long Island has apparently been reserved till the present year. On 

 Sunday, June 14, 1914, Mr. Robert W. Peavey, to whom students of Long 

 Island birds are indebted in many instances for his indefatigable enthu- 

 siasm, discovered a nest of this bittern on the part of the Great South Bay 

 of Long Island, known as Jones' Beach, or locally, as Seaford Beach. This 

 is one of the least frequented parts of the ocean-side Long Island beaches. 

 The nest contained two newly-hatched young birds and two eggs. It was 

 placed on salt meadow hay and was built up several inches above the level 

 of the ground. Mr. Peavey flushed the bird off the nest when he was 

 within three feet of her. The locality was one mile east of the High Hill 

 Life Saving Station near the back or bay side of the beach, and within a 

 newly-established game-preserve of about 5000 acres, which is guarded 

 by a patrolman. 



It may be said that he was the less surprised in that he had been informed 

 of the unusual occurrence of one or more " Look-ups," as they are named 

 in this part of Long Island, by Nelson Verity, one of the veteran gunners of 

 this locality, and had himself seen an American Bittern on June 7 on 

 Seaford Creek, almost within the limits of the village of the same name. 



It is safe I think to say that the bird as a breeding species is exceptional 

 on the whole of Long Island, as well as in this restricted locality — Seaford 

 region, since Mr. Peavey has spent a day each week for many summers, in 

 this place, and his own observation as well as the testimony of the baymen 

 of the region make its occurrence here in the nesting season altogether 

 unprecedented. — William C. Braislin, Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Cory's Least Bittern in Illinois. — On May 23, 1914, the writer was 

 staying on the edge of a small swamp along the Fox River, about forty 

 miles northwest of Chicago. While standing motionless to watch the 



