306 General Notes. [£g 



In 'Cassinia' for 1904, Mr. Thos. H. Jackson gives May 15, "one egg was 

 already pipped." "Early in May .... another .... nest of six eggs was 

 found. ..." Again, "Early in December, 1904, a young Barn Owl was 

 found dead .... it was still partly covered with down and could not have 

 been over 8 weeks old, so that it must have been hatched about the first 

 of October. This would seem to confirm some of the accounts we have 

 had of the irregular nesting habits of these birds." 



Audubon gives dates: a single egg, November 8, 1832 (St. Augustine, 

 Fla.); at Charleston, S. O, "The eggs. . . .must have been laid. . . .about 

 the 15th of September [1833]." Other dates for nesting I find are: Santa 

 Clara, Cala., April 14, 1891, 4 eggs (Reed); Rio Frio, Texas, May (Bd., 

 Br. and Ridg.). Dr. A. K. Fisher says in 'The Hawks and Owls of the 

 United States,' p. 137, in summarizing the nesting time of this species: 

 "Except in the more northern parts of its range, where it breeds as late as 

 June, it is probable that the majority of eggs are deposited in March." 

 Maj. Bendire states, 'Life Histories of North American Birds,' Pt. 1, 

 p. 327: "....At Washington City, District of Columbia .... they begin 

 nesting from the last week in April to about the 10th of May." 



As the species is not found breeding on the Atlantic slope much farther 

 north than Wilmington, Del., this young bird must have been from an un- 

 usually early nesting pair, or the early dates heretofore have been over- 

 looked. — C. J. Pennock, Kennett Square, Pa. 



Northern Breeding Limit of the Chuck- wills-widow. — In 'The Auk' 

 (XXV, 1908, p. 478) I gave what I believed to be the first record of the 

 breeding of this species north of James River, Virginia. Yesterday, May 

 23, while walking through an open piece of pine woods near my house 

 about 6.30 p. m., I flushed a female from a set of two eggs, which I found 

 were incubated about five days. This is exactly a year to a day from the 

 date my father took the first set. While two pairs have been around my 

 home since April 4, and I have seen them flit by about dusk, it has only 

 been within the last two weeks that I have been able to flush one in the 

 day time. I think it is safe to say their breeding range extends northward 

 to the high river banks on the north shore. — H. H. Bailey. Newport 

 News, Va. 



The Starling near Springfield, Mass. — A Starling (Sturmis vulgaris) 

 was caught by a cat, in Hadley, eighteen miles north of Springfield, Jan- 

 uary 25, 1909. In February and through the early spring a number of 

 these birds were seen in this vicinity, and during the present month a pair 

 has been found breeding in Agawam, on the west side of the Connecticut 

 River. Apparently the range of the Starling in this country is extending 

 north and inland. 



I do not think it is probable that the Starlings that have recently been 

 seen in this vicinity are the survivors or descendants of those introduced 

 here twelve years ago. At least it is not possible that these birds could 



