Vo'^ Xin General Notes. 393 



July, 1SS8, under circumstances which led me to believe that the bird 

 bred there. This year I passed the night of June 29-30 on the top of 

 Graylock and was again greeted, both in the evening and in the morning, 

 by the beautiful song of this Thrush, — the song so admirably character- 

 ized by Mr. John Burroughs in ' Riverby,' pp. 47, 49. A hasty search for 

 the nest in the midst of a drenching rain on the morning of the 30th 

 proved unavailing; but the anxiety manifested by the bird when I invaded 

 his domain confirmed my belief that this Thrush breeds on Graylock. 



On the 27th of last June I was delighted to find a little flock of six or 

 seven Prairie Horned Larks — probably members of one family — feeding 

 in a ploughed field in North Adams, near the edge of Williamstown. 

 One of them was in full song. This is the place where Mr. J. B. Grimes 

 had told me that this bird breeds (see ' Auk,' IX, 1892, 202). The discovery 

 of the nest of the Prairie Horned Lark near Pittsfield, Mass., by Mr. 

 C. H. Buckingham in 1892 was announced in 'The Auk,' XI, 1894, 326. — 

 Walter Faxon, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 



Notes from Western New York. — Plegadis autumnalis.— A Glossy 

 Ibis was shot at Dunkirk, N. Y., late in April, 1894, by Mr. John W. Ware 

 of that place. Mr. Ware tells me that the bird was wading in shallow 

 water at the time and that he had no difficulty in approaching within 

 gunshot as it was not very shy. The specimen, which I have examined, 

 is in the rich, purplish red plumage of the adult. 



Strix pratincola. — A male Barn Owl was shot just outside the city 

 limits at Pine Hill on July 18, 1895. I saw it at the taxidemist's a few- 

 days later. 



Icteria virens. — On June 17, 1895, I secured a male Yellow-breasted 

 Chat in a bushy pasture at West Seneca. I first saw the bird two days 

 before, when I spent some time looking for its nest. Also looked for the 

 nest on the above date, but found none. This was the only bird I started. 

 It is the second record for Erie County. —James Savage, Buffalo, N. V. 



Notes on Some Birds of Northeastern Illinois. — Pectoral Sandpiper. 

 — I was somewhat surprised when my friend, Mr. Wallace Craig, brought 

 in a specimen of this species on July 26, 1893, and reported them as com- 

 mon at 'Mud Lake.' This small lake is in the southern part of the city 

 near S3rd Street and Stony Island Avenue. Part of the north shore is 

 free from rushes and very muddy, and seemed to be a favorite feeding 

 ground for Sandpipers. We visited the lake the next day and found this 

 species was abundant and very tame, alighting on the mud-flat within a 

 few feet of us. August 2, we found them in great numbers, easily secur- 

 ing nine, which was as many as we cared for. They would alight on the 

 flat beach while we were wading within twenty feet. August 9, they were 

 not nearly so tame, for pothunters had begun to mow them down. 



On June 18, 1894, Mr. Craig observed this species at ' Mud Lake,' and 

 they came within twenty feet of him, while he lay hidden in the grass 

 watching them. 



so 



