538 General Notes. Loct. 



grounds, but when they returned this year, conditons were altered, the 

 reservoir being filled to the brim. This compelled the birds to hunt for a 

 different feeding ground and in hunting about they found my pond. — 

 John E. Thayeu, Lancaster, Mass. 



Ocracoke Water Bird Notes. — On Royal Shoal, a small island be- 

 longing to the North Carolina Audubon Society, and situated some eight 

 or nine miles northwest of Ocracoke, we found the following birds nesting: 

 Laughing Gull, Common Tern and Oyster-catcher. The Gulls were in 

 the midst of their laying, as were the Common Terns. Three pairs of 

 Oyster-catchers inhabited the island. One nest was found with the eggs 

 about ready to hatch, and one pair had young nearly grown, two being 

 the complement in each case. The Black Skimmers were preparing their 

 nesting hollows, but had not yet begun to lay. The Royal Terns seem to 

 have almost deserted this island — where they were so numerous four or 

 five years ago — for islands farther to the eastward, and the Least Terns 

 are mostly back on the beaches. 



The total number of eggs of the Laughing Gull and Common Tern was 

 something over two hundred. 



A flock of twenty Cormorants left the ' lump ' as we approached. 



A small petrel, presumably a Wilson's, was seen flying up the sound on 

 May 23, after a rather stormy night. On the same date we found Black 

 Skimmers very plentiful, though not yet laying, on the island in the middle 

 of Ocracoke Inlet, with a few Common Terns nesting. Common Tern, 

 Least Tern and Oyster-catcher were all, apparently, nesting on the beach, 

 the Common Terns mostly on the south side of the Inlet. Young of 

 the Oyster-catcher were seen, from a quarter grown up to the flying stage, 

 in each case in broods of two. 



This island was almost completely swept by the storm tide of the previous 

 night, which may have destroyed a good many Tern eggs. There were 

 many more birds around than the number of nests warranted. The few 

 nests found were all on the small, unswept area, of course. — H. H. Brimley, 

 Raleigh, N. C, 



Oreortyx in Idaho. — Notes appearing in 'The Auk' of April, 1911 

 and 1912, refer to the range of Oreortyx being extended eastward to near 

 the Idaho-Oregon line, — specifically. Vale, Oregon. My observation is 

 that not only has it been long established in southwest Idaho, but that its 

 range e.xtends at least 125 miles beyond the Oregon line. 



Four years ago a covey of eight along Indian Creek several miles north- 

 west of Nampa was wiped out by hunters. Two years ago a number were 

 taken in the Boise bottoms eight miles north of this place. For ten years 

 more they have been common in the Owjdiee foothills some forty miles 

 Bouth of Nampa; in fact, so numerous are they that hunters from here 

 regularly visit that section at the opening of the shooting season, two guns 

 on one occasion killing 44 Quail in two hours. 



