Vol ig ™Vj General Notes. 439 



No more was seen of the owls and I had almost forgotten them when 

 about six p. m. on the night of May 28 I was astonished to observe one 

 fly close by our residence, uttering its peculiar call. The next morning 

 I tramped over several miles of suitable fields but could not flush any and 

 none have been observed since. 



The bird is so rare about Philadelphia after April 15 that this record 

 seems to demand attention. — Richard C. Harlow, Edge Hill, Pa. 



The Breeding of the Short-eared Owl (Asio accipitrinus) near Ann Arbor, 

 Michigan. — The Short-eared Owl is a common migrant in this locality, 

 but although a hunter once told me of finding a nest here I have had no 

 positive proof that it breeds in this vicinity until this summer. On June 

 26, 1907, there was brought to me three immature specimens of this species, 

 which had been taken in a grassy marsh seven miles south of Ann Arbor. 

 On these birds the down was still present in places, and the wing and tail 

 feathers were only partly out of the sheaths so that only short flights 

 could be made. The collector did not look for the nest, which was no 

 doubt near by. The skin of one of these birds is preserved in the Uni- 

 versity Museum. — Norman A. Wood, University Museum, University 

 of Michigan. 



Mortality among Kingfishers. — While digging out some Kingfishers' 

 nests this season I was surprised to find a dead bird in about every fourth 

 or fifth hole. This I was at loss to account for, as the birds showed no 

 signs of combat or disease, while the plumage was not even disarranged. 

 The bodies, though, seemed to be dried up, with no signs of blood in them, 

 so I presumed that something had crawled into the holes and sucked the 

 blood from them, leaving the carcass intact. This surmise proved correct, 

 as the last hole I dug out contained a large black snake, and a dead king- 

 fisher still warm. The snake measured about four and a half feet long and 

 had evidently gone in for the eggs, any kind of eggs being readily devoured 

 by this snake in this section. The holes were generally from two to three 

 feet below the top of the bank, so it was an easy matter for them to get 

 down from the top. I found no less than six dead birds within a mile, and 

 if all of the river bank gave the same average, the loss of life must have 

 been great. I am at loss, however, to account for their molesting the 

 kingfishers and not the Rough-winged Swallows, which also nested abun- 

 dantly in the same bank. Snakes are more numerous this year than ever 

 before. — H. H. Bailey, Newport News, Va. 



The American Crossbill in Camden County, Ga. — On November 12, 1906, 

 I noticed American Crossbills (Lo.ria cnrvirostra minor) here (Camden 

 County) for the first time. While riding through a pine forest with hard- 

 wood underbrush I flushed 15 or 20 from a small open pond where I pre- 

 sume they were getting water. They flew to the tops of the tall pines, 



