^"'sg^"] Geueral Notes. 3OI 



The Osprey obtains the greater part of its living in Bristol from the 

 fish seines that run out from the shores in every feasible place, and the 

 Hawks are to be seen at all hours of the day sitting on the poles that 

 support the nets, now and then driving in, or rather dropping down, to 

 obtain some denizen that it contains. In the noondav numbers of 

 Hawks gather over the bay and fields and, mounting high in the aii-, 

 circle round and round, uttering a combination of piercing, musical cries, 

 which the farmers insist upon calling a song. This song, if so it can be 

 called, begins with three notes in the same key, then two in a higher, 

 and then the completing note in the same key with the first three. If 

 the cry of any Hawk can be spoken of as a song, these six musical notes 

 of the Osprey are certainly as near to it as any. 



The Ospreys in Bristol have been so carefully watched,^ — ^as the belief 

 among the farmers is that they protect their poultry from other maraud- 

 ing Hawks, — that they have become very tame and only when the eggs 

 are nearly hatched or when the young are in the nest do thev pay any 

 heed to a passer \>y. Their dislike for dogs is apparently stronger than 

 for men, yet I have never seen them strike either. 



In the last week of October or the first in November they leave for the 

 south and are replaced by the Gulls. The colonies in New Jersey and on 

 Plum Island are of course much larger but almost every year new pole 

 nests are added to the colony in Bristol and the future may see a much 

 larger community. — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., Boston, Alass. 



The Great Gray Owl in Oneida County, New York. — A handsome speci- 

 men of the Great Gray Owl {Scotiaftcx citierea') was shot at White Lake, 

 Oneida County, during a cold snap the lirst part of last February. It is a 

 rare bird in this locality, its occurrence being recorded about once every 

 ten years. — William S. Johnson, Boonville, N'. T. 



January Occurrence of the 'Sapsucker' in Brookline, Mass. — On 



Feb. 6, 1S95, one of the coldest days of the year, with the wind blowing at 

 about fort}' miles an hour, I sighted a small Woodpecker on the lee side 

 of an apple tree on my father's place in Brookline, Mass. As he seemed 

 a little too large for a Downy Woodpecker, I investigated and found 

 him to be an immature male Sapsucker (^Sphyrapictis varius). He was 

 clinging to the trunk of the tree and seemed, upon my approach, to be 

 quite sluggish. I even went so far as to attempt to catch him in vc\y 

 hand, when he suddenly proved that he Avas not sluggish at all, and flew 

 up into the top of the tree to peck at a frozen apple. So I went back to 

 the house and having procured my gun, gathered him in. He proved to 

 be in fine, fat condition and not crippled in any way. I afterwards found 

 that some nephews of mine had seen him several times on apple trees in 

 the vicinity, but not knowing of the rarity of this occurrence in the 

 month of January, they said nothing to me about it. 



