438 General Notes. [§££ 



have kept in touch with the bird-lore of the region referred to and now 

 would add three more species to those enumerated in that list. 



Strix pratincola. Barn Owl. In August, 1906, while on a visit to 

 Cumberland, Maryland, I saw a captive specimen of this species, which 

 had been taken at Corrigansville, a hamlet nearby. 



Passerculus s. savanna. Savannah Sparrow. — I saw an individual 

 of this species August, 1906, at Mt. Lake Park, Allegany County, the 

 noted summer resort on the Baltimore and Ohio Railway. It must have 

 been an oversight of mine not to find it there and at Cumberland earlier. 



Minus polyglottos. Mockingbird. — During my residence in the re- 

 gion covered by the list, I kept my eyes open for this species, being told 

 that they were sometimes seen, but I failed to find any. Now Mr. John 

 Fulton, a well-known nature lover of Cumberland, writes me, that a Mr. 

 LeFevre found three pairs near Oldtown, Allegany County, on May 5, and 

 subsequently the nest of one of these containing four young. Unfortu- 

 nately this nest was shortly after robbed of its contents by prowling boys 

 from South Cumberland. It is to be hoped that the other pairs brought 

 out their young safely, so that this fine bird may become firmly established 

 at Cumberland, where, no doubt, it ought to be. — G. Eifrig, Ottawa, Ont. 



The Food of Several Maine Water-Birds. — The following notes are the 

 result of a number of actual observations on the food of birds, that for the 

 greater part have been examined under conditions which did not admit 

 of the preservation of the stomach contents for expert examination. 

 Therefore they are here offered as a contribution to a subject both impor- 

 tant and interesting. 



In the diet of the Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) I have noticed sea 

 cucumbers (Pentacta frondosa) disgorged by the side of a nest, and during 

 the winter of 1907-08, one of these birds was seen repeatedly dropping a 

 frozen Pentacta on Old Orchard beach. Previous to freezing a hole had 

 been torn in its side, evidently by the beak of a gull or crow. 



The shell bodies of the beach snail (Polinices heros), with operculum 

 attached, have been found by the sides of nests. The broken and empty 

 shells are common at resting places of this gull. This mollusk is a well 

 known and abundant enemy of the common clam (Mya arenaria). On 

 the Maine coast it is eaten by modern man to a very limited extent, and in 

 certain sections, and at certain times it is used to a great extent for fish 

 bait. Yet its destruction of the clam, so extensively used in commerce, 

 offsets its own small use, and the habit of the Gull in feeding upon it is an 

 economic service, to be considered in the summary of its feeding habit?. 

 At the No-mans-land colony, in summer, I once saw nearly a pint of 

 cockles {Purpura lappillus) disgorged by the side of a nest; and at the 

 Brothers, Englishman's Bay, a half pint of the crustacean, Thysanopoi/n 

 norvegica, disgorged by the side of a nest. 



Larus Philadelphia, besides its diet of fish, and garbage, has been found 



