^•gj 111 ] General Notes. 1 77 



enough to bear a man's weight. With this snow on the ground, it seemed 

 probable that the Brown Thrush would be unable to get food enough to 

 keep alive. Consequently, from Dec. 27 till March, we took food to him 

 regularly, at least as often as twice a week. We gave him yellow corn meal 

 so:iked in water or milk for bis staple diet. This food we sometimes varied 

 with bread, pieces of meat cut line, meal-worms, etc. He always ate what- 

 ever we gave him with a good appetite, as soon as we were a few yards off . 

 Bv March 5, the snow had melted sway in many spots, and we saw the 

 bird for the last time on that day. 



When at rest, he carried his left wing lower than the right. For this 

 reason we supposed that he had been wounded in the wing, and so 

 prevented from making the long autumnal migration. Whether or not he 

 would have been able to take care of himself without outside help we have 

 no means of knowing: but he ate what we brought him so eagerly, and 

 so soon after we offered it to him, that it seemed probable that he got very 

 little other food after the first heavy snowfall. — Arthur Scott (in. man, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



A Few Notes from Maine. — Accipiter velox. — On Aug. 17, whileat 

 Jackman, Me,, I noticed a large flock of at least 150 Sharp-shinned Hawks 

 flying southwards. The birds composing the flock were distributed over 

 an area of perhaps three miles, and were not riving steadily along when 

 seen. Some were flying, while others would light on the tops of trees 

 along a roadside which ran in the general direction in which they were 

 flying. After resting a few minutes they would resume their flight, 

 passing other members of the flock that were resting, so that some of the 

 birds were constantly on the wing. As it was very difficult to count them, 

 1 am sure that I underestimated rather than overestimated their numbers. 

 It seems odd that they should have been flying southward so early in the 

 season, and in such a large body. 



Pinicola enucleator. — The Pine Grosbeaks are at present to be seen 

 daily in the vicinity of Bangor, Me., and I believe they are present this 

 winter in even greater numbers than were here three years ago in 1S92- 

 1 8< 13. The proportion of red males seems to be about one to every ten dull- 

 colored birds. What is remarkable is the extremely early date at which I 

 saw the first birds this fall. On Oct. 26, while hunting at Mud Pond, about 

 ten miles from Bangor, I saw a flock of ten or fifteen Grosbeaks. To 

 make doubly sure I shot two of them, but found, on coming to skin them, 

 that they were moulting, and their feathers were so loose that it was im- 

 possible to save the skins. On dissection they proved to be young males. 

 Their stomachs contained a mass of fir buds and seeds. They were next 

 seen on Nov. 10, near Orono, about nine miles from Bangor, and presum- 

 ablv belonging to a different flock, as they were about five miles from the 

 locality where the birds were previously seen. After this they were seen 

 every few days, but I did not see any in the city of Bangor until the last 

 week in December. From that time up to the present date, Feb. 17, 1 have 

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