96 PROCEEDINGS MANCHESTER INSTITUTE 



was evidently a straggler, as the species appears not to occur 

 regularly north of Lake Winnepesaukee. 

 Dates : Last of March to October. 



100. Carthartes aura (Linn.). TURKEY VUI/TURE. 



An accidental visitant from the south. It has twice been 

 captured in the state, as follows : at Hampton Falls, on the 

 coast, where on the 6th or yth of April, 1882, a female was shot 

 by Frank Percell. This specimen, which is preserved in the 

 mounted collection of the Boston Society of Natural History, 

 was recorded by Mr. C. B. Cory ('82). Mr. William E. Cram, 

 of Hampton Falls, also writes me that on the i5th of May, 1898, 

 he saw a bird of this species at that town, and that, although he 

 did not shoot it, he had sufficient opportunity to make the 

 identification unquestionable. The second capture of the Tur- 

 key Vulture in the state was at North Weare, near Concord, 

 where, as I am informed by Mr. C. M. Stark, a bird was found 

 one spring morning, about 1887, by a Mr. Felch, in the latter*s 

 hen yard. It appeared unable to fly, and when thrown into the 

 air would only flutter to the ground. It was kept for some time 

 by Mr. Stark, and would often wander off to a considerable dis- 

 tance in the fields. Later the bird was given away to a butch- 

 er, about whose slaughter house it remained for some time and 

 then suddenly disappeared. 



Note: Elaiioides forficatus (Linn.). SWAW,OW-TAII,ED KITE. 



Mr. Ned Dearborn ('98, p. 13) includes this species in his list of birds 

 of Belknap and Merrimack Counties on the testimony of one Geo. Stol- 

 worthy, "who states that he saw one in Franklin in 1875. It picked up 

 a snake within one hundred feet from him, where he had a good chance 

 to see it." Dr. W. H. Fox also writes me that on July 4, 1887, a farmer, 

 whom he considered reliable and who was a sportsman, reported to him 

 "a large bird, thought to be a hawk, having a forked tail like a barn swal- 

 low. It was seen quite closely as it lit on some alders near the road and 

 remained while he drove by." Though both these cases suggest the bird 

 in question, the evidence does not seem to warrant its inclusion as a bird 

 of the state. 



101. Circus hiHlsoniiis (Linn.). MARSH HAWK. 



An uncommon local summer resident, breeding in marshy 

 places. I have never observed it in the br ceding season among 



