538 General Notes. [§^ 



bred there. A male of the species was seen in the swamp on Maj' 2, 1914, 

 and one or more of the birds was observed there occasional!}' up to the time 

 of finding the nest. 



The following may also be of interest in this connection. On June 29, 

 1914, one male and two female Red-winged Blackbirds were observed in a 

 cattail swamp near Truro, Nova Scotia, and probably within the limits of 

 the town. The birds were easUy and positively identified and presumably 

 were breeding there. I can find no previous record of the breeding of the 

 species in Nova Scotia. — Harrison F. Lewis, Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. 



Brewer's Blackbird (Euphagus cyanocephalus) breeding in South- 

 eastern Minnesota. — It has long been definitely known and of late j'ears 

 frequently recorded that Brewer's Blackbird regularly nests in considerable 

 numbers in northwestern Minnesota, especially throughout the valley of the 

 Red River of the North and the region immediately adjacent to the east- 

 ward. A few scattered observations confirm its occurrence as a migrant 

 further east in the state: — White Earth, Becker Co. April 6, 1885, W. W. 

 Cooke, (Rep. Bd. Migr. Miss. Val. 1888, pp. 173-4); Bemidji, southern 

 Beltrami Co., September 8, 1902, (L. O. Dart, MS. List); Parker's Prairie, 

 southeastern Ottertail Co., " found here and breeds but is rather scarce 

 during the breeding season," (Fred Barker, MS. List) ; and from still further 

 eastward comes to the Minn. Nat. Hist. Survey a report from Rev. Sevcrin 

 Gertkin that " many " were seen on April 9, 1894, and " a small flock " on 

 April 3, 1897, at CoUegeville, in eastern Stearns County, a locality about . 

 fifty miles south of the geographical center of the State. 



Dr. P. L. Hatch in his ' Notes on Minnesota Birds ' 1892, p. 286, has 

 the following to say in regard to the breeding of this blackbird in Minne- 

 sota: " They breed abundantly along the Red River from Big Stone lake 

 to the Canadian line, and eastwardh' along the shores of the woodland lakes 

 and streams to Mille Lacs in Crow Wing county, and less commonlj- con- 

 siderably further south." But the latter, and most important, part of this 

 statement is unsupported by actual data and nothing up to the present 

 time has been recorded to substantiate the presence of this blackbird east 

 of the extreme western part of tlie State in the breeding season. Therefore 

 the present circumstantial account of a nesting colony of Brewer's Black- 

 birds at a locality only thirty miles west of the eastern boundary of Minne- 

 sota is perhaps worthy of being placed on record, more especially as it is, 

 as far as I can discover, the most eastern locality where it has been found 

 nesting anywhere in its range. 



The place where the birds were found is a swampy meadow of some two 

 hundred acres in extent, resulting from the drainage, a few years ago, of a 

 shallow lake or slough, called Palmer's Lake, a famous resort in times gone 

 by of many kinds of wild fowl and marsh birds. It lies close to the northern 

 limit of the city of Minneapolis. The discovery of the colony was made by 

 Mr. F. H. Nutter on May 13 of the present year, 1914, while surveying 

 this lake bed. Mr. Nutter has for many years been an earnest and intelli- 



