56 



Pennock. Breeding of Bufeo brachynrus. [January 



11.35; wing, 3.62; tail, 3.00; culnien, .65; bill from nostril, .48; gape % 

 .75; tarsus, .82; middle toe and claw, .80; middle toe without claw, .5S; 

 middle claw, .25 inch. Iris hazel. Bill with maxilla dusky brown, yellow- 

 ish on edges, mandible yellow. Tarsi and toes bluish lead color. This 

 bird was in the plumage of the female, but careful dissection proved that 

 it was a young male. 



[17. 1.] Cistothorus stellaris (Licht). Short-billed Marsh Wren. — 

 A summer resident; not rare at Cornwall, on the Hudson, where its 

 nests and eggs were taken by Mr. Eltinge Roe, in June, 1882, as recorded 

 in the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, Vol. VIII. p. 179. 



79. Ammodramus caudacutus nelsoni Allen. Nelson's Sparrow. — 

 The Sharp-tailed Sparrows recorded by me from the Hudson Highlands 

 have recently been referred by Mr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr., to this form, 

 although he considers them to be intermediate between subspecies nelsoni 

 and subvirgatus, approaching a little more closely to nelsoni. 



NOTE ON THE NESTING OF BUTEO BRACHT- 

 URUS AT ST. MARKS, FLORIDA. 



BY C. J. PENNOCK. 



Early in April, 1SS9, while on a collecting trip at St. Marks, 

 Florida, I spent several days in the swamps that line the Gulf 

 coast. 



April 3, I noticed a small black Hawk fly to a nest in a pine 

 tree about three miles back from the coast. On climbing to the 

 nest I found the tree had formerly been occupied by Herons, there 

 being three old nests besides the one occupied by the Hawk, which 

 also I took for an old Heron's nest. It had evidently been added 

 to recently, and contained two or three fresh twigs of green 

 cypress on the bottom. At this time there were no eggs. I again 

 visited the nest April 8. The old bird was seen near, and this 

 time she showed some concern, flying around us above the tree 

 tops as we approached, and several times uttering a cry somewhat 

 resembling the scream of the Red-shouldered Hawk, but finer and 

 not s5 prolonged. The nest had received further additions of 

 cypress twigs, but was still empty. My boatman wrote me May 

 2, stating that after three visits he had shot the bird on the nest 



