

486 General Notes. |_Oct. 



Northern Flicker (Colaples auratus luteus) in San Juan County, 

 Wash. — A typical specimen, an adult male, was taken Oct. 15, 1907, on 

 Orcas Island, in San Juan County, Wash., one of the islands of the San 

 Juan group in Puget Sound. It was brought me and the skin was forwarded 

 to Washington, D. C, for further identification, and pronounced as 

 above. — S. F. Rathbtjn, Seattle, Wash. 



Numbers of the Meadowlark still Increasing in Maine. — In this 

 part of Maine, at least, there continues to be an increase in the numbers 

 of the Meadowlark (Sturnella magna magna). On Oct. 12, 1910, I 

 found near Winnock's Neck, Scarboro, many more Meadowlarks than I 

 had ever seen in one day before. Flock after flock was flushed, as I walked 

 over the marshes, and there could not have been less than two hundred 

 birds. This is a remarkable number in the case of a species which was 

 uncommon a few years ago and was once a rarity. 1 



About fifty Meadowlarks remained near Pine Point railroad station 

 until late in November, 1910; but only about twenty passed the entire 

 winter of 1910-1911 near here, — fewer than stayed through the previous 

 winter. 2 — F. S. Walker, Pine Point, Maine. 



The English Sparrow at Tucson, Arizona. — The popular side of 

 bird life is to anathematize the so-called English Sparrow. If it has a 

 known virtue it is kept sedulously in the background, but inasmuch as the 

 complaint is general it is barely possible that they are entitled to the total 

 sum of badness heaped against them, but the rule is rare that has no 

 exception. The English Sparrow (Passer domesticus) was first noticed in 

 Tucson about seven or eight years ago. But where they came from, and 

 how they came the writer does not know, but he does know that they did 

 not come in from the west. They breed continuously from early spring 

 to late midsummer. March 23 the writer saw young birds as large as 

 their parents and to the writer's knowledge they are still (July 12) breeding. 

 Nest-making appears to be going on much of the time, both male and 

 females being engaged in the work, but the number of times the}- breed 

 the writer has no means of knowing. One curious phase of the business 

 is their scarcity in winter. In summer they are so numerous as to be 

 seldom out of sight, but in the winter a drive over the town will not discover 

 a half dozen. In Tucson it rarely snows, but if such thing should happen 

 it instantly melts on touching the ground. Occasionally when a cold 

 wind blows from the mountains freezing point will be reached, but seldom 

 more. Cold weather can therefore be no motive for their scarcity. It is 

 possible they scatter over the desert, but I am much in the country and 

 do not often see them. April 16 last, the writer saw one, a male, at Oracle, 

 a small town in the western foothills of the Santa Catalina Mountains, 



» Norton, Auk, XXVI, pp. 307, 308. 

 2 Auk, XXVII, p. 341. 



