84 General Notes. [^ a u n k 



Rare Birds near Springfield, Mass. — Sturnus vulgaris. In April, 1908, 

 a Starling was taken in Agawam, near Springfield. It was with a flock 

 of blackbirds. Eleven years ago about a hundred Starlings were liberated 

 here, but they soon disappared. 



Oceanodroma leucorhoa. The last of October a Leach's Petrel was 

 captured alive on the Connecticut River, in the extreme southern part of 

 Northampton. There are numerous records of the presence of this bird 

 here, the earliest being previous to 1839, when W. B. O. Peabody stated 

 that although this bird seemed so bound to the ocean by all its habits and 

 wants, he had one brought him that was taken near Chicopee River, in 

 Springfield, seventy miles from the shore. It has been supposed that 

 these petrels were driven inland by storms, but in October of this year we 

 had no severe gales in New England that were noticed inland at Spring- 

 field; in fact, generally currents in the upper air were so sluggish that the 

 numerous balloons that were sent up from this point were unable to cover 

 any great distance, and it is also singular that if the appearance of these 

 birds inland depends on storms, that they should be found here only in 

 autumn and usually in October. 



Ammodramus nelsoni subvirgatus. On the sixth of October last, an 

 Acadian Sharp-tailed Sparrow was taken in Longmeadow, near Spring- 

 field. This is the first time the presence of one here has been proved, 

 but I believe that its appearance in this vicinity is not so rare as is sup- 

 posed. — Robert O. Morris, Springfield, Mass. 



Notes from West Virginia. — Sphyrapicus varius. — On June 17, 1908, 

 I found the nest of a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in an old dead tree near ' The 

 Sinks' in the southern part of Randolph County. As I watched the old 

 birds, they went back and forth continuously, making very frequent and 

 rapid flights from the nest to a large sugar tree that stood some rods away. 

 When I examined the sugar tree, I found that they had filled with punc- 

 tures a space on the side of the tree about a foot long and several inches 

 wide. Insects were attracted to these wounds in the bark and the old sap- 

 suckers made th's their hunting-ground. They seemed to have no diffi- 

 culty in finding abundant food for their young. Two days later I passed 

 this nesting site again. The old birds were still carrying food to their 

 young from the same place. Although I saw them make many trips, com- 

 ing and going, not a single time did they bring food from any other place. 

 On this same trip into the Spruce Mountain region, I saw great numbers 

 of these birds in different places. 



A young female of this species was taken at Horton, near the terminus 

 of the Dry Fork R. R., on June 16. At this place old birds and their young 

 were flying about in considerable numbers. The Yellow-bellied Sap- 

 sucker is by far the most common woodpecker breeding in the Alleghenies 

 of central West Virginia at 4,000 feet altitudes. 



Corvus corax principalis. — Northern Ravens were seen and heard a 



