° 'i9jo ] General Notes. 453 



and every now and then, without any apparent cause of alarm, would 

 fly out over the water as one bird, make a wide circle, and invariably 

 return to the same spot. This flock remained here until it was too dark 

 to see them further, but was gone the next morning. While Turnstones 

 are not uncommon on the shores of Lake Erie they seldom ascend the river. 

 I am aware of but one prior record for the county. — B. H. Swales, Grosse 

 Isle, Mich. 



A Massachusetts Record for the White-tailed Kite. — As this bird is 

 rare east of the Mississippi River, and in fact is scarcely much more than a 

 straggler even in that region, its appearance' on the Atlantic coast as far 

 north as New England is very extraordinary. On May 30 last I saw an 

 adult bird at very close range on the island of Martha's Vineyard. It was 

 so clo.se and was watched with glasses for such a long time, both by myself 

 and Mr. C. E. Brown of the Boston Society of Natural History, that there 

 was not the slightest doubt in our minds as to its identity. We were spend- 

 ing several days on the island studying the birds and on one of our daily 

 trips came upon this specimen very unexpectedly at a fresh meadow at the 

 head of one of the ponds. When first seen he was sitting on a post not a 

 hundred yards distant and we took him to be a marsh hawk, but on look- 

 ing again before even raising our glasses, we saw that he was something 

 very different. His white head and tail and more especially the black 

 lesser wing coverts were very distinctive at that distance and immediately 

 attracted our attention. The ashy blue back was what suggested an adult 

 Marsh Hawk at first glance. From this distance we watched him for 

 some time with our glasses and on a nearer approach he flew to another 

 post, which he shortly abandoned to soar above the meadows at a height 

 of a hundred or more feet. There were many Red-wing Blackbirds nesting 

 in the bushes by the stream and they were so alarmed at his presence that 

 they several times attacked him. We imagined he was looking for mice 

 or perhaps frogs, as he apparently did not bother the birds. When he 

 saw his prey below he would commence fluttering like a Sparrow Hawk, and 

 then, on seeing his chance, he raised his wings above his back, so that they 

 almost touched, whereupon he descended, gaining speed as he went. In- 

 stead of checking himself on nearing the ground, he seemed to dive head- 

 long into the grass and bushes, remaining out of sight several seconds 

 before reappearing. We were unable to make out if he had anything in 

 his claws when he arose again. This process was repeated several times 

 and was a remarkably interesting performance. Finally he lit on another 

 post and I crawled towards him keeping close to the fence, so that I actually 

 got within ten yards of him before he flew, getting a wonderful view. 

 He arose from there very much startled at my presence, flew over the hills 

 and disappeared. The following week, on our next trip, which we made in 

 the hopes of again locating him, he was seen once more at long range, 

 but except for these two times we never caught another glimpse of him. 

 I believe this Kite has never before been seen in New England, but of 



