220 General Notes. [^^f^ 



tember he had killed one of these birds on these same meadows. He is 

 on the grounds regularly several days a week and is the best informed 

 person in the neighborhood. This only goes to show that there are un- 

 doubtedly more of these birds killed than is known about. 



King Rail (Rallus elegans). — I received a fine adult male this fall from 

 Chatham, Mass., where it was shot on October 31, 1909, by Mr. Russell 

 Bearse. The King Rail seems to be a rather uncommon straggler from the 

 South and there are but few recent records of its having been taken here. 

 Mr. F. H. Kennard records in 'The Auk,' Vol. XXV, p. 218, a male being 

 taken at Needham, October 10, 1907, and in the collection of the Boston 

 Society of Natural History is a bird taken in a steel trap at Peabody, Mass., 

 March 13, 1908. The specimen to which I refer taken at Chatham is also 

 in the above collection. Mr. Bearse also informed me that on December 

 28, 1908, he killed another King Rail at Chatham which was given to 

 Mr. Warren E. Freeman of Arlington, Mass. This latter seems like a very 

 late date 



Chewink (Pipilo erythrophthalmus). — This seems to be a rare winter 

 resident and I can find no record for this State since 1904 when, on Decem- 

 ber 4, at Smith's Point, Manchester, a bird was seen by W. R. Peabody. 

 On December 28, 29 and 30, 1909, I saw a handsome male bird at Edgar- 

 town (Martha's Vineyard), about two miles from the town. I was duck 

 shooting and staying at our camp on the "Great Pond," and observed this 

 bird both from the building and from the stand. The end of the point 

 where the camp is situated is covered with a thick growth of bushes and 

 the Chewink seemed to be living in them. He was so tame that he 

 scratched among the leaves almost at my feet, and even when I moved 

 he did not appear to be greatly frightened. He also came close to the door 

 in search of the food we threw out after meals. A family of rats were liv- 

 ing under the building and several times I saw one of them searching 

 among the leaves for this food, with the Chewink only a very few feet away 

 engaged in the same occupation. The day I left the bird was still there and 

 appeared to be in good condition. As fax as I could see his only other 

 feathered companions were a pair of Song Sparrows that spent their time 

 in the same way scratching among the leaves in search of food. During 

 these three days the weather was bitterly cold, the thermometer going to 

 nearly zero every night, and considering the continued cold weather we 

 had experienced since the first of December, and the blizzard the day after 

 Christmas, the bird seemed to have chosen an extremely cold winter to 

 stay north. Though I never heard him chirp, he showed no signs of mind- 

 ing the cold, for when feeding he was very active on his feet. I never 

 saw him fly or attempt to, but in such thick cover there was no occasion 

 for it. Still, he may have had a bad wing which would account for his 

 being north. It seems reasonable to believe that physical disability must 

 play an important part in such cases as these. — S. Prescott Fay, 

 Boston, Mass. 



