398 General Notes. [jujy 



the remainder of October and throughout November and December. 

 When in early January ice was forming on the pond, one of the two left 

 on the third or fourth day; the other remained to January 17, when ice 

 had covered all but a few small areas of the pond. These young males 

 showed little or nothing of the creamy buff crown upon their arrival, but 

 they gradually developed this feature. So at first their true identifica- 

 tion was difficult, but the two-note call and chestnut color of the head 

 clearly differentiated them from Baldpates. By December the plumage 

 of the adult male European Widgeon was quite fully developed, and at the 

 time they left they lacked little of its completeness. One gained the adult 

 plumage somewhat earlier than the other, so they could readily be dis- 

 tinguished. A female Baldpate joined them about December 1 and left 

 on January 16, one day earlier than the later remaining Widgeon. A cold 

 wave had brought the temperature at the pond down to 13° below zero 

 on the thirteenth. 



In early December their companions on the pond were 400 to 500 Black 

 Ducks, the number varying from day to day, several MaUards, a few 

 Scaup Ducks, 90 to 100 Lesser Scaup, a young male Bufilehead, 3 Ruddy 

 Ducks, 25 to 60 Mergansers, 8 Coot, and a few Herring Gulls, a collection 

 of water fowl, the numbers of which had been steadily increasing during 

 November and were decreasing in late December. 



This occmrence of European Widgeon on Jamaica Pond was the first 

 in Boston and its immediate vicinity, if I am not in error. Like other 

 wild ducks which visit protected waters, these Widgeons soon become 

 unsuspicious and allowed near approach. They were objects of interest 

 and pleasure to many observers throughout their long visit. — Horace W. 

 Wright, Boston, Mass. 



An Egret on Long Island. — In connection with Mr. R. Heber Howe, 

 Jr.'s note on the American Egret, in the April 'Auk,' and the one by 

 Mr. G. Kingsley Noble to which he refers, I would like to report a single 

 bird of this species which I observed at Mastic, Long Island, where it is 

 very rare, on August 9, 1913. It was identified with certainty. — John 

 Treadwell Nichols, New York, N. Y. 



The Woodcock Carrying its Young.— It has been the good fortune 

 of the writer to see recently two successive flights of our native Woodcock 

 carrying its young nearly as large as itself, sitting upright, grasped and 

 suspended by the claws of the mother bird. I am told that the sight is an 

 unusual one, and that a brief account of it may interest your readers. 



I was on a httle botanizing trip near a river bottom, looking especially 

 for Golden seal plants and flowers which were somewhat plenty in that 

 vicinity; the season being late for the flowers, late May or early June. I 

 have no record of the exact date. 



Startled by a loud whirring of wings near by, very like, yet perceptibly 

 different from that of the Partridge, I saw the slow flight of the bird with its 



