Vol. XXIV1 

 1907 J 



General Notes. 



221 



very nearly circular — is forced into a 

 pyriform shape. The malar and squa- 

 mosal bones are bent almost at right 

 angles, the junction of the angle press- 

 ing forcibly against the muscles of the 

 lower mandible. (See illustration.) 

 From the irritated appearance it 

 must have caused considerable pain 

 to the bird. 



The entire body was fearfully emaci- 

 ated and the bird was almost dead. 

 It was absolutely impossible for the 

 bird to have fed itself, and from the 

 appearance of the sides of the mouth 

 it was evident that another bird had 

 been feeding it. A few soft seeds, 

 about the shape of wild rice, though 

 smaller and apparently predigested, 

 were protruding from one side of the 

 mouth, but the bird could not pass 

 them through far enough to swallow 

 them. — Frank M. Woodruff, Chicago 

 Academy of Sciences, Chicago, III. 



Malformed bill of Rose-breasted 

 Grosbeak 



Breeding of the Rough-winged Swallow in Berkshire County, Mas- 

 sachusetts. — -On July 3, 1906, as I was waiting for a train at the railroad 

 station in Glendale, Berkshire County, Massachusetts, I saw a pair of 

 Rough-winged Swallows flying back and forth over the Housatonic River. 

 Skimming just above the surface of the rapidly flowing water they passed 

 and repassed the station very many times, giving me excellent opportuni- 

 ties for making out their characteristic coloring and markings. Once 

 they alighted on a large, flat-topped boulder at the water's edge where 

 they moved about by a succession of short, quick runs, reminding me of 

 Semipalmated Plover feeding on a sand beach. I have never before seen 

 swallows of any kind move so quickly by the aid of their feet alone. After 

 drinking at a pool of rain water which had collected in a hollow in the rock, 

 these birds took wing again and resumed their regular, coursing flights. 

 They frequently passed under a bridge by which the road from the vil- 

 lage to the station crosses the river, and twice they turned sharply 

 upwards and disappeared for a moment among its supporting rafters, 

 which were twenty-five or thirty feet above the water. Suspecting that 

 they might have a nest there I went out on the bridge, but I could not 

 well see under it. On a telephone wire stretched across the river near the 

 bridge I found, however, three young Rough-winged Swallows, fully grown 

 and feathered, clamoring loudly for food, which their parents brought to 

 them every few minutes. I had a fine view of these young birds, for they 

 were perched in full sunlight within ten or twelve yards of me. Probably 



