304 • Ge7icral Notes. Vy^- 



and as fast as they were flushed would shortly return. I could have 

 shot them every day for a week had I cared to. At this small open 

 piece of ground, the Rusty and Crow Blackbirds had collected, but 

 I did not see them kill many Snipe the first day or two, but the third 

 and fourth da3's they just went for them. I should say that I saw 

 them actually kill ten or twelve Snipe on the ground where the snow 

 had melted, but there were thirty or forty dead ones that I saw in other 

 places. The Rusty Blackbirds were the principle aggressors, and it 

 was astonishing to see how quickly they could attack and lay out a 

 Snipe or Robin. Both species were killed while on the ground and 

 the Blackbirds would onh' eat the head, or as near as I could see, the 

 brain, while the body was left untouched. 



"Up around my house they attacked the Robins and I have no idea 

 how many they did kill, but you could see them lying around every- 

 where on the snow, and it was the same way all up and down the bay 

 shore. I presume they killed other species of birds but I did not notice 

 any. I cannot account for this sudden change in the Blackbirds' habits 

 except from lack of any other kind of food and they made the best of 

 what was at hand." 



If any of the other readers of 'The Auk' have heard of any rapacious 

 traits in the character of our Blackbirds, I hope tliey will give us the 

 benefit of their experience. — ^Ruthven Deane, Chicago, III. 



Notes on the Breeding of the American Crossbill in Hamilton 

 County, New York. — I have spent much of my time, during the last 

 three summers, at Camp Killoquah, Forked Lake, Hamilton Co., New 

 York, and have been much interested in watching the habits of some 

 Crossbills that spend most of their time about the camp. 



There are several camps on this preserve, which belong to the Hamil- 

 ton Park Club, but Killoquah seems to be the only one that the Cross- 

 bills (^Loxia curvirosira mnior) consider thoroughly congenial, and here 

 they replace most acceptably their distant connections, the English 

 Sparrows. 



In both 1892 and 1S93 I had arrived at Camp too late even to pretend 

 to hunt for their nests, but last year (1S94) as soon as I had arrived there, 

 in the last week in July, I immediately inquired for my friends, and was 

 much disgusted to learn that they had built a nest, in under the roof of 

 the tank that supplies the Camp with water, and that on June 5 this 

 nest had been torn down, before any eggs had been laid, as it was clog- 

 ging the automatic dial, .which registers the amount of water in the tank, 

 and as the birds were fouling the Avater. 



Mr. W. Harrison Eisenbrey, the owner of the Camp, as well as the 

 guides who knew the birds well, were present when the nest was torn 

 down, and showed me exactly where it had been placed inside the roof, 

 and on a shelf just above the indicator. The nest, too, was fliown me, in 

 a very dilapidated condition ; but it was sulTiciently well preserved to tell 

 just how it must have looked. 



