■^o^-^II] General Notes. 303 



soaring in the air and singing like an English Skylark. I failed to iden- 

 tify him until he dropped down a little distance away and became the 

 unmistakable, every-day performer of our fields. 



In relating the circumstance to a gentleman whose knowledge of our 

 home birds is only exceeded by his modest}-, he told me that he once 

 heard a Robin {Meriila migratoria) imitating pei-fectly the cry of the 

 Whip-poor-will. I could reconcile the statement with personal experience 

 when only last month I listened to a Robin whose pipe had evidently 

 been attuned to the wild cry of the Nightjar or perhaps to the strains of 

 more than one bird of song, for it was very unlike his own clear, excel- 

 lent music. The ways of birds are sometimes quite as unusual as their 

 voices. It was but yesterday that I saw a Crow Blackbird hovering over 

 a pond after the manner of a Kingfisher. He did everything but dive 

 into the water and plainly enough was in search of something to eat. — 

 G. S. Mead, HhigJiam, Mtjss. 



Strange Habits of the Rusty and Crow Blackbirds.— Since the 

 unparalleled cold of the past winter throughout the Southern States, 

 we have heard and read of manv instances of the great destruction 

 among our smaller birds; and the unusual scarcity of a number of our 

 common spring migrants, both in the east and west, only demonstrates 

 too clearlv the larger numbers which must have perished in their winter 

 home. The most remarkable instance of which I have learned, evidently 

 brought about by the deep snows cutting off the food supply of some 

 species, is the preying of the Rusty and Crow Blackbirds on other 

 species for food. 



I am very much indebted to my friend Mr. Jesse N. Cummings of 

 Anahuac, Texas, for the following interesting letter on this subject. 

 Anahuac is in Chambers Co., at the head of Trinity Bay, and north of 

 Galveston. "March 24, 1895. In the first place snow exceeding the 

 depth of two or three inches was never known before in this section 

 of the countrv, until this storm which commenced the 14th of February 

 and lasted for about thirty hours, covering the ground to a depth of 

 twenty inches on a level and remaining at about that depth for three 

 or four days before it commenced to thaw, and then it was three or 

 four davs more before the snow had entirely disappeared. I have on 

 my place an artesian well which has a temperature of about 70° and 

 a flow of 60,000 gallons per twenty -four hours. This kept a large piece 

 of ground on the hay shore free from snow and was the only place in 

 the country where a Jack Snipe {Galliiiago delicata) could warm his 

 toes or get anything to eat. I did not notice the first Snipe that came in, 

 as it was the second day after the snow-storm that my attention was 

 directed to them, and when I went down to see them I should say that 

 there were at least two hundred birds on a space not over one hundred 

 feet square. It did not take me long to get my gun and kill about 

 forty in a short space of time, as you could hardly drive them away, 



