292 General Notes. [April 



On February 7, with the temperature at 15 above zero, a flock of five 

 Canada Geese passed over the city and alighted in East Potomac Park. 

 The wind on that day at times attained a velocity of forty-five miles an 

 hour. — Brent M. Morgan, 224 Eleventh St., S. W., Washington, D. C. 



Nesting of the Greater Yellow-Legs in Newfoundland. — On 



June 20, 1919, Mr. J. R. Whitaker and the writer had the satisfaction of 

 discovering a female of this species (Totanus melanoleucus) brooding four 

 young just out of the shell and still in the nest, in a large bog in the vicinity 

 of Grand Lake, N. F. Led to the spot by the ever increasing cries of the 

 male bird, the nest, which was nothing more than a bare depression ten 

 inches in diameter and three inches deep, upon the top of a mound of 

 peat otherwise covered over with a short growth of sheep laurel, was 

 noticed three yards from where we had stopped in doubt as to where next 

 to proceed. 



It presented an unusual domestic picture; one youngster was perched 

 on the mother's back, while one or two others appeared from under her 

 wings after the manner of domestic fowls. The parent remained until 

 we closed in, when she flew low from the nest with a piercing cry, and after 

 circling about overhead took up a position on a dead stub nearby, from 

 which she continued to kip, kip, kip, kip — incessantly as long as we re- 

 mained near the nest, the male likewise calling and circling above. 



The young, whose legs were not as yet strong enough to bear their 

 weight, lay flat in the nest. They were mottled in gray, brown and black 

 down, white below. Some of the lighter spaces on the back tending 

 toward buffy. The eyes were large and black, bill one-half an inch long, 

 lead-black in color, while the legs were characteristically long and greenish 

 in color. Notwithstanding the recent hatching of the eggs, only one or 

 two small pieces were to be found, the empty shells doubtless having been 

 carried away by the parents. 



On visiting the nest the day following, the young could not be found, 

 although the actions of the old birds indicated their presence in the vicin- 

 ity. — George H. Stuart, 3rd, Girard Trust Co., Philadelphia. 



Nesting of the Little Black Rail in Atlantic County, N. J. — On 



July 4, 1919, Mr. Julian K. Potter and the writer flushed a small rail in 

 a marsh an acre or two in extent, beyond the sand dunes immediately 

 back of the ocean beach, on an island below Beach Haven, N. J. Search- 

 ing for the nest in the belief that the bird was a Little Black Rail, we 

 were rewarded by finding it placed among the long grasses, the tops of 

 which were so drawn over as to almost completely hide the eggs from 

 view. The nest, which was composed entirely of the same rather fine 

 grass, was placed about one inch above the damp ground and contained 

 eight eggs, very heavily incubated. 



