290 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



Nuttall Bulletin. I hope the youngster may stay black 

 and that, as live birds are ' mighty uncertain ' you have 

 him sacrificed to science in due time and sent to the 

 Smithsonian where all good birds go — or ought to go — 

 when they die." This letter was written at Oakland, 

 Ind., and he adds: "I am taking a little 'vacation,' 

 so called, by euphemism, though I don't see much 

 difference. I seem condemned to the galley for life." 



Mr. Ruthven Deane, writing from Cambridge, Mass., 

 to Mr. Boardman, July 16, 1872, says : "I was pleased 

 to hear of your taking a specimen of Vireo Philadel- 

 phicus. Mr. Brewster and myself took three females at 

 Umbagog Lake in June. Your specimen now makes 

 the fifth taken in New England." February 10, 1874, 

 he writes : "I was much surprised to find that the 

 Nyctale Richardsonii has been taken in your vicinity 

 in spring, as it has generally been thought that only the 

 coldest winters drove it into the limits of the United 

 States." On November 11, 1876, Mr. Deane says: 



We have had a very early and uncommonly large flight of 

 Snowy Owls since the first of the month on our coast and it is 

 hard to conjecture the probable cause, especially as they appeared 

 in such mild weather and to my knowledge no other so northern 

 a species has been driven south in numbers. My object in writing 

 is to ask if you have had many in your section or if to your 

 knowledge any have been taken on Grand Manan. I have learned 

 of nearly two hundred specimens having been seen and shot 

 between Saco, Me., and New Bedford, Mass., and the majority 

 were shot. Most of them have been taken on the coast although 

 numbers have been seen in country towns and a few have been 

 seen perched on the housetops in Boston, Charlestown, etc. 



