° '{gig J General Notes. 589 



Dendroica discolor. Prairie Warbler. — Williams says he has no 

 record except for August. As far as type of country and locality are con- 

 cerned, I can think of no reason why this species should not be a common 

 migrant in the county. One of the first bird notes that fell on my ears as 

 I woke up at daylight on April 3 was the thin, wiry strain of the Prairie 

 Warbler. Careful search revealed three birds around the house. There 

 was another flight of warblers on April 5, when at least six were seen, five 

 in a live oak tree at the same time. — Ludlow Griscom, American Museum 

 of Natural History, New York. 



Two Interesting Additions to the Collection of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History. Gavia pacifica. Pacific Loon. — An 

 adult but unsexed specimen in full spring plumage of this very rare 

 wanderer to New England was taken at Hampton Beach, New Hampshire, 

 during May, 1910, by Mr. S. Albert Shaw. Through the generosity of the 

 collector this bird is now in the Society's collection. 



Squatarola squatarola. Black-bellied Plover. — Mr. John B. 

 Paine of Weston, Massachusetts, has very kindly presented to the Society 

 an unsexed immature Black-bellied Plover showing no external trace of 

 the hind toe on either foot. It was taken at Chatham, Massachusetts, 

 August 27, 1913. 



It is an exceptionally large specimen, having the following measurements: 

 wing, 104; culmen, 15.5; tarsus, 25 mm. — W. Sprague Brooks, Boston 

 Society of Natural History. 



Bird Notes from Collins, Erie Co., N. Y. — For several years I have 

 had a small group of Cardinal Grosbeaks, not over four seen at one time, 

 in exactly the same haunts yearly. They seem rather shy and elusive and 

 I have not found the nest, but have seen one female and three males at a 

 time. Others have seen at least three in different places two or three miles 

 away. 



They are not proved as nesting in Erie County, but there is no doubt of 

 it in my mind. The Nashville Warbler nests here only casually while of 

 the Canadian, Black-throated Blue, and Junco, I have seen nests or newly 

 fledged young, and in 1915 found a Solitary Vireo building. 



I note that the Cardinals eat the fruit of Celastrus scandens and Carpinus 

 carolinensis in the fall. The Yellow Warblers use the very same bush or 

 tree in which to build, and this year a pair took the old nest and relined 

 it and used it. I never knew them to do this before. 



The Parula Warbler nests here, also the Magnolia, Hooded, Blackburnian, 

 Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Louisiana Water-Thrush, and a few 

 Rough-winged Swallows. I da not see it mentioned in food habits of the 

 Chickadee and Downy Woodpecker that the larvae of the bulbous galls of 

 golden-rod are evidently quite an important part of their food. They drill 

 persistently until they reach the larva, and in early spring I have seen a 

 small flock working on these galls. — Anne E. Perkins, Collins, N. Y. 



