236 General Notes. [^^i 



was observed to fly for several hundred yards, with characteristic speed 

 and strength. That it was not a new comer is indicated by the fact that 

 Mr. John Whitney, a man with a gunner's keen knowledge of the Anatinse, 

 had reported some weeks earlier, a Pintail wintering in the vicinity. That 

 the bird was strong of wing, after, evidently, surviving the low temperature, 

 of the previous week, which ranged each night below zero Fahrenheit, 

 indicates that it had remained through choice, rather than necessity, 

 and with the foregoing notes, shows that the Pintail occasionally spends 

 at least a considerable part of the winter as far northeast as Portland, 

 Maine. — Arthur H. Norton, Portland, Me. 



White-winged Scoter {Oidemia deglandi) in Minnesota. — Late in 

 the Autumn of 1905 a local hunter of this city shot an adult male White- 

 winged Scoter on Lake Minnetonka. I examined this duck in the flesh 

 and tried to buy it but the owner preferred to keep it and had it mounted 

 by the late Henry W. Howling of Minneapolis. It was subsequently 

 destroyed by a house cat. 



On Nov. 14, 1911, I secured from a local hunter an adult female in per- 

 fect plumage, shot on Lake Minnewashta some two miles distant from this 

 village. This was the only one seen and was not near any other species 

 of duck. Cold weather with snow-storms had prevailed for three days prior 

 to its capture. It was fat and in good condition. — Albert Lang, E.tcelsior, 

 Minn. 



The Bittern (Botaurus lentiginosus) Wintering in New Jersey. — On 

 January 21, 1912, an adult Bittern was brought to me alive by my 

 nephew, Robert W. Moore. It had been caught by him the day previous 

 while he was skating at Walker's Pond about a mile and a half southeast of 

 Haddonfield, N. J. For several days the bird had been noted about the 

 pond in a weakened condition. No wounds were discoverable, but its 

 stomach was empty and, I have no doubt, it was weak from lack of food. 

 Two days after it was captured it died in captivity and was mounted. 



Since the 5th of January snow had covered the ground and the ex- 

 traordinary continuance of the freezing weather from that date to the 20th 

 must have made the securing of its chosen food impossible. Possibly the 

 unusual period of warm weather, which lasted throughout the early winter 

 to January 5, tempted this bird, as well as many other species which 

 usually go south, to winter with us. The latest previous record for the 

 state seems to have been November 19, 1878, at a point much farther 

 south in Cape May Co., and the earliest spring record March 30, so that 

 this instance may fairly be termed the first recorded case of this species 

 wintering in the state. — Robert Thomas Moore, Haddonfield, N. J. 



Recent Occurrence of the Egret ( Herodias egrelta) near Portland, 



Maine. — Although a few authentic records have been made of the occur- 

 rence in Maine of the Egret (Herodias egretta), the increasing scarcity of 



