General Notes. 185 



rightly remember, it was composed mostly of rootlets and coarse grass. It 

 was shallow and rather flat ; the lining I do not positively remember. As 

 the bird left the nest I shot her. It is the only nest of the kind I ever 

 found, although the birds are not rare." 



The ecfo-s, five in number, which are now in my possession, and in color 

 and size closely resemble those of the least Flycatcher (^E. minimus), 

 were taken June 17, 1879, slightly incubated. — A. M. Frazar, Water- 

 town, Mats. 



Scops flammeola in Colorado. — The articles in this Bulletin for 

 July, 1879, p. 188, and April, 1880, p. 121, relating the capture of the 

 Flammulated Owl in Colorado, both overlook the first record of this spe- 

 cies as taken in that State, viz. that in "Field and Forest," June, 1877, 

 p. 210, where is recorded a specimen taken at Boulder, Colorado, in March 

 (187.5?),* by Mrs. M. A. Maxwell. This record was evidently unknown 

 to Messrs. Deaiie and Ingersoll, since the former gentleman heads his 

 article " Capture of a Third Specimen .... in the United States," while 

 the latter quotes a newspaper note to the effect that the specimen there 

 announced was " the fourth that was ever taken in the United States." — 

 Robert Ridgway, Washington, D. C. 



An Owl-eating Owl. — In the cloudy morning of April 14, 1879, a 

 male Barred Owl (Strix nebulosa) was shot in a thickly-built part of 

 the city of Troy, N. Y., from the stomach of which I took several of the 

 larger feathers, and one entire foot, tarsus and tibia, of a smaller Owl, — 

 probably Scops asio. — Austin F. Park, Troi/, N. Y. 



Protection of the Nest by a Marsh Hawk (Circus ojaneus hud- 

 sonius). — On an afternoon in the middle of last June I was walking 

 through a large swamp in this vicinity (Brunswick, Me.), engaged in col- 

 lecting botanical specimens, when I heard a peculiar cry, and looking up 

 I saw a Marsh Hawk (Circus cyaneus Jmdsonius) sailing through the air 

 distant about a quarter of a mile from where I stood. The cry or call was 

 frequently repeated, but I took no further notice of it at that time, and 

 walked on through a growth of low trees towards a large open space of 

 perhaps twenty acres. When I reached the confines of this space the 

 sound increased very much in intensity, and, looking up, I saw the Hawk 

 diving with great rapidity towards me at an angle of about forty-five de- 

 grees. I had hardly time to raise for my protection the cane which I held 

 in my hand, before the Hawk came within a yard of my head and shot 

 directly up into the air agnin. I saw that it was a male, and I then espied 

 the female sailing high in the air. I walked on towards the middle of the 

 open swamp, while the male flew off some distance and circled around, 

 approaching and then receding from me. He finally made another dive 



* The year of capture is unknown to me, but it was taken previous to 1876, 

 the specimen in question having been exhibited in Mrs. Maxwell's fine collec- 

 tion of mounted Colorado birds at the Centennial Exposition. 



