VOl i90? VI ] General Notes. 307 



have been residents of this region for more than ten years without their 

 presence being noticed. There are more observers of birds here than there 

 were forty years ago, and the least reliable of these would hardly be mis- 

 taken in identifying a Starling, especially if it was seen during the colder 

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



The Capture of the Red-eyed Cowbird in Arizona. — It is with the great- 

 est pleasure that I report the capture of an adult male of Tangavius ameus 

 involucratus from near Tucson, Ariz. As far as I have learned, this bird 

 has hitherto been found only in Texas and eastern and southern Mexico. 

 However, it is certainly more than an accidental visitor here. I have 

 seen it for over a month (from April 11 to May 21). A few days ago I 

 noted two males courting a female. They held their heads up very high, 

 as all cowbirds do, but followed each other around very sedately. The 

 males took turns in driving the other a short distance away, and following 

 the female. Yesterday a male, before a female, went through contortions 

 similar to those frequently preformed by the domestic gobbler. Resting 

 on his tarsi, with wings and tail spread and ruff raised, he quivered very 

 noticeably. The slight movement of the wings slowly raised him, still 

 trembling, some six feet above the female, where he paused a moment, 

 a droll sight, and then sank slowly down beside his would-be mate, appar- 

 ently quite exhausted by the violent, unusual exercise. The song is an 

 even more pleasing combination of squeaks than that of the common cow- 

 bird. I have heard it only from solitary males in trees. 



Whether these birds crossed New Mexico, or whether they came up the 

 west coast of Mexico, is a question. At any rate they are far out of their 

 supposed range. The specimen is in the University of Arizona Museum. — 

 S. S. Visher, Carnegie Laboratory, Tucson, Ariz. 



The Present Status of the Meadowlark (Sturnella magna) near Portland, 

 Maine. — In 1882, in his 'Catalogue of Birds Found in the Vicinity of Port- 

 land, Maine,' Mr. Nathan Clifford Brown stated that this bird was a rare 

 summer resident, oftenest seen in migrations. The extreme dates then 

 given were April 22 and Nov. 3. 



To-day the conditions are decidedly different, and while the increase of 

 which I shall speak seems to have been somewhat general in the southwest 

 quarter of the State, I shall confine my remarks strictly to the section em- 

 braced in Mr. Brown's paper of 1882, viz., the vicinity of Portland. I had 

 been collecting several seasons in fields in which the bird is now regularly 

 seen in some numbers without meeting a specimen until 1891, when I found 

 and collected a lone specimen at Westbrook. In August of the same year, 

 in fields I had regularly visited in the adjoining town of Gorham, two small 

 flocks, one of five, and one of eight birds, were seen. From that time to the 

 present, May, 1909, there has been a slow but positive increase and dis- 

 persal of the birds through the section. They are not only rather plentiful 

 in certain Westbrook and Gorham fields, but are to be found in several 



