°"i9ii J General Notes. 271 



neighboring towns than are to be expected there in winter, and their 

 abundance for a part of the time appears unprecedented. Reports of the 

 birds began to reach me early in December, but Miss Caroline M. Stevens, 

 of Portland, whose father's house occupies a site especially favorable for 

 observation, tells me that she noticed unusual numbers late in November as 

 well as afterwards. On December 31 I found a least twenty-five feeding 

 in some open lots in the Western Promenade section of the city. The next 

 day I counted more than a hundred scattered about the same lots, in 

 hedges, in the trees of an old orchard and on the ground; there were not 

 less than a hundred and twenty-five of them. On each of the five succeed- 

 ing days I found an equal number in the same locality. There were but 

 forty in evidence on January 6, but on January 7 there were more than 

 two hundred concentrated within a distance of a hundred yards on Arsenal 

 Street, while several dozen others were grouped in trees not far away. 

 On January 8 and 9 this large flock was still in the neighborhood. Then 

 a week passed in which I could not find a single individual, though I made 

 a search daily of the district previously frequented by the birds. On Jan- 

 uary 17 a flock of twelve appeared on Arsenal and Bramhall Streets. For 

 the subsequent ten days my record was as follows, the birds always occur- 

 ring in the same part of the city : 

 January 18, twelve birds. 



" 19, none. 



" 20, fourteen birds. 



" 21, ten birds. 



" 22, two birds. 



" 23, twelve birds. 



" 24, none. 



" 25, none. 



" 26, eleven birds. 



" 27, eleven birds. 

 Ten days now elapsed during which I saw none. On February 6, how- 

 ever, I came upon a small flock — perhaps half-a-dozen birds — at the 

 corner of Free and South Streets, in the center of the city. They were 

 moving through the tops of tall elms and did not long remain in sight. 

 A good deal of fruit was still left on some of the mountain ash trees; but, 

 in spite of frequent search within the limits of Portland, I could find no 

 more birds until February 25, when I discovered one in the Western 

 Cemetery. 



In the meantime from many points near the city reports had continued 

 to come to me of the presence of great numbers of Robins. The newspapers 

 had also taken up the subject. I heard directly from trustworthy persons 

 in Scarboro, Cape Elizabeth and Old Orchard and on Cushing's, Peaks 

 and Great Chebeague Islands. The largest flocks were generally said to 

 contain from thirty to forty birds, but I was told of one on Cape Elizabeth 

 of one hundred or more and one on Cushing's Island of fully two hundred. 

 The main body apparently withdrew from all these places before or about 



