Vol. xxxvn 



1919 



Eifrig, Birds of the Chicago Area. 517 



three of the eggs were out of the nest and picked open, only one remaining 

 whole. 



.flSgialitis meloda. Piping Plover. — While this nimble beach sprite is 

 no longer so plentiful as when Mr. Nelson wrote, who counted thirty breed- 

 ing pairs within two miles along the beach north of the city, it has not 

 suffered itself to be brushed aside entirely. In a walk along the beach 

 from Millers to Mineral Springs, Indiana, a distance of twelve miles, one 

 may see two or three pair of these diminutive Plovers, as on April 22, 1917. 



Bonasa umbellus umbellus. Ruffed Grouse. — As is to be expected, 

 this handsome forest bird has vanished from all its former haunts near the 

 metropolis. Only in the Dunes it has been able to hold out. Even here 

 its hold is rendered precarious by hunters and more so by the Great Horned 

 Owl. March 11, 1916, 1 flushed three at Mineral Springs, where one may 

 usually see one or two in the tamarack swamp, but we have also seen them 

 near Millers. Dr. A. Lewy found the remains of one in a Great Horned 

 Owl's nest. 



Cathartes aura septentrionalis. Turkey Vulture. — This species 

 is rare here. In nine years 1 have seen it once only, and that on April 21, 

 1917, when one passed low over Thatcher's woods, River Forest. Stoddard 

 saw three at Tremont, Indiana, in the Dunes, July 4, 1917. 



Circus hudsonius. Marsh Hawk. — This is the commonest Hawk 

 here, with the possibility that in parts of our area the Red-shouldered may 

 be more numerous. The large and small swales in the sand dunes are 

 especially attractive to it, and here one may find five or six nests within a 

 mile or two, as Stoddard has actually done at Mineral Springs. We found 

 a bird here as early as January 6, 1917, and five to six on March 11, 1916. 

 Nests are found the second half of May. 



Astur a. atricapillus. Goshawk. — There were large flights of birds 

 of this species in the fall of 1915, and again 1916. Mr. Kahmann, the taxi- 

 dermist, got 30 or 40 to mount each season. One in my collection was taken 

 at Orland, October 28, 1916. 



Buteo swainsoni. Swaixson's Hawk. — Nelson says of this bird in 

 his fist of 1876, " As this species breeds in southern Illinois, it probably 

 also breeds in the northern portion of the state." Woodruff quotes this, 

 but adds no instances of it having been seen or secured. In nine years 

 I have seen only one of what ] took to be this Hawk, at Addison. Mr. 

 Kahmann tells me that among the hundreds of Hawks he has mounted, he 

 never received one Swainson's Hawk. Therefore he was much puzzled 

 when, on October 27, 1917, he ran into a migrating flock of fifty or more 

 which were circling about in bewildering fashion. Finally he secured one, 

 which proved to be this species. The rest were all hke it. 1 1 is now in my 

 collection. 



Haliaeetus 1. leucocephalus. Bald Eagle. — As late as twenty years 

 ago this species nested regularly in the Dunes, as Woodruff states, but does 

 so no longer. Now and then, however, they seem to return as if to once 



