496 Williams, Birds of Leon Co., Florida. [oct. 



times in the vicinity of Lake lamonia. There is little doubt but that the 

 species is represented in the county by a few individuals each winter, but 

 their caution is such that they successfully avoid the presence of man. 



190. Asio flammeus. Short-eared Owl. — I have not seen Ihis bird 

 in the county. Mr. Griscom states in a letter to me that he has seen 6 

 during his visits of several winters to the Horse-shoe Plantation, 16 miles 

 north of Tallahassee. It is not surprising that this bird should have been 

 seen so seldom in the county as it is an inhabitant of marshes, well covered 

 with long grass and weeds and is not easily flushed. 



Antrostomus carolinensis. Chuck-wills-widow.— Although a com- 

 mon summer resident, this bird is rarely met with in the county during the 

 winter months. My friend Fred Elliot and I were returning from a hunt 

 on Lake Jackson, late in the evening of December 5, 1911, and as we 

 entered a lugubrious stretch of woodland along the plantation road, a 

 Chuck-wills- widow spookishly appeared and settled down on the ground 

 immediately in front of the horses we were driving. It remained hardly 

 longer than an instant when it coquettishly flitted a few feet further ahead 

 and settled down again. This performance was repeated 8 or 10 times, in 

 fact, until we emerged from the woods. The bird was in jeopardy of the 

 horses' hoofs several times, but it evidently knew the strategic moment 

 to move. 



Antrostomus vociferus vociferus. Whip-poor-will. — This species 

 was included as one of the birds of the county in my original article largely 

 on the basis of a set of eggs which had been taken in the county and which 

 I identified as those of the Whip-poor-will. I am no' sure that I had ever 

 seen this bird in the county prior to November 23, 1909. Just at dusk on 

 this date I was returning home with my father from a drive and as we were 

 ascending McDougall's hill on the eastern edge of Tallahassee, a Whip- 

 poor-will flew toward us and alighted on a fence post directly in line with 

 our buggy. On the following day I was hunting with Fred ElUot on the 

 old Cotton Plantation, 9 miles north of town, when, about noon, another 

 Whip-poor-will flushed just to the side of our team from the pinewood 

 brush along one of the plantation roads. 



Archilochus colubris. Ruby-throated Hummingbird. — I mention 

 this species here merely to give the earliest and latest dates it has been 

 seen in the county. March 11 (1903) is the earliest date in my records. 

 The latest, is October 25 (1906), when I saw one in the grounds of the 

 state Capitol at Tallahassee. 



191. Carpodacus purpureus purpureus. Purple Finch. — To the 

 severity of the winter of 1911-12 in the northern and eastern states may be 

 attributed the appearance ol this bird in Leon County. I had never 

 known it to reach the county prior to this time. I first saw it on January 

 14, 1912, a cold, raw, dismal day, with the thermometer registering around 

 32°. There were about a dozen of the birds in some brush piled in our yard. 

 Later in the day I found them feeding in the chick weed which was so 

 abundant in the yard. One pf the birds was in fairly bright red plumage; 



