voijXxix-| g^^^^i ^^^gg 243 



half an hour, often viewing it at a distance of not more than fifty feet. The 

 temperature of the early morning had been 22°. The noon day tempera- 

 ture in the shade was officially given as 39°. The air at the time, however, 

 was soft and warm and calm. Of course there was no insect life in the air, 

 and the bird plainly was not looking for it there. In the afternoon of the 

 following day an hour was spent searching for the bird, but I could not 

 find it. 



The Crested Flycatcher is a rare summer resident of Eastern Massa- 

 chusetts, being so characterized by Mr. William Brewster in his " Birds 

 of the Cambridge Region " and by Dr. C. W. Townsend in his " Birds of 

 Essex County." The latest record for a bird of the species is given by 

 Mr. Brewster as September 26, in 1897, when one was seen in Arlington 

 by Dr. Walter Faxon. Messrs. Howe and Allen in their " Birds of Massa- 

 chusetts " give the limit of the season as September 12 and a record without 

 specific data of October 15. Mr. Richard M. Marble has a record of one 

 seen by him on October 2, 1910, in the Allendale woods. West Roxbury. 



This Cambridge bird, therefore, so far as I am able to determine from 

 records at hand, furnishes the only occurrence of the species later than 

 October 15 and was present sixty-six days after that date. The same 

 means which had afforded it subsistence in October and November were 

 doubtless present in December up to the day it was observed. No snow 

 had as yet fallen to cover the ground. The mean temperature of December 

 was officially given as 6° above the normal and the highest for twenty years. 

 The temperature rose above freezing on all except four days. Thus this 

 flycatcher had had unusually mild weather conditions under which to 

 extend its remarkable stay. 



Messrs. Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway in their " History of North Ameri- 

 can Land Birds, vol. 2, p. 336, state, " During the early summer this 

 species [Great Crested Flycatcher] feeds chiefly upon insects of various 

 kinds;. . . .afterwards, as if from choice, it chiefly eats ripe berries of vari- 

 ous kinds of shrubs and plants, among which those of the poke-weed and 

 the huckleberry are most noticeable." Many of the shrubs among which 

 the bird moved on the day it was observed were berry-laden. — Horace 

 W. Wright, Boston, Mass. 



The Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) at Springfield, Mass. — In the spring 

 of 1908 the presence of a single Starling was first noticed in this vicinity. 

 Since that time the number observed in this part of the Connecticut 

 valley has rapidly increased until this winter flocks containing upwards of 

 one hundred individuals have been often seen. They now occasionally 

 come into the very center of the city, frequenting the spires and cupolas 

 of the churches and public buildings. — Robert O. Morris, Springfield, 

 Mass. 



Starling (Sturnus vulgaris) in Chester Co., Pa. — While the Starling 

 has long been a common resident in the vicinity of New York and adjacent 



