VOl i.907 J Wayne, Some Birds observed near Charleston, S. C. 377 



against various obstacles and were killed or stunned while many 

 others sank to the ground exhausted. It would also seem probable 

 that a considerable number became wet and snow-laden by reason 

 of the character of the snow, and thus, unable to fly, were forced 

 downward to the earth to be dashed to death if falling from a con- 

 siderable height, or simply stunned if from a lower elevation. This 

 theory that the birds fell heavily or darted swiftly downward from 

 high in the air would seem to be the only way to explain the presence 

 and the extensively mutilated condition of the dead birds on the 

 ice of the lakes at Worthington and elsewhere. Many of the dead 

 birds found in the yards and fields and on the roofs of buildings 

 appear to have met death in the same manner. 



OBSERVATIONS ON SOME BIRDS PROCURED NEAR 

 CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA. 



BY ARTHUR T. WAYNE. 



Colymbus auritus. Horned Grebe. — This Grebe is exceed- 

 ingly abundant from November until the middle of March, but 

 it is rare to obtain one in full adult nuptial plumage while the birds 

 sojourn here, as they commence to migrate long before the breeding 

 plumage is acquired. The change from winter to summer plumage 

 begins about the 10th of March. A specimen taken April 7, 1888, 

 was assuming the characteristic nuptial plumage, while a bird 

 shot on March 21, 1906, has the throat mottled with black and the 

 fore neck pale chestnut. 



Dr. Eugene Edmund Murphy took a specimen in almost perfect 

 nuptial plumage at Cape Romain on May 15, 1904, and the writer 

 procured a male near Mount Pleasant, on June 5, 1907, which 

 very closely resembles the bird taken by Dr. Murphy. Both of 

 these birds were in good condition, and not wounded, hence it is 

 remarkable that they should have remained on this coast so late 

 in the season of reproduction. 



Nyctanassa violacea. Yellow-crowned Night Heron. — 

 On March 23, 1907, the writer shot a female of this handsome 



