124 DutcHer, Birds of Little Gull Island, N. Y. [April 
below an altitude of 4000 feet. This bird has the actions and habits of 
several species. Like the Jays, it is at times noisy and in flocks; and 
when upon the ground it hops about in the same manner. It clings like 
the Woodpeckers to the side of a tree while it hunts in old excavations, 
interstices of the bark, etc., for the various forms of life found therein; 
and its flight is similar to theirs. In clasping with its sharp claws the 
cones on the pines, and other coniferous trees, in order to pry with its 
bill for the seeds, it often hangs head downward, swaying back and forth, 
with the ease and movements of the Titmice. It is a very shy bird, and 
at or near its nesting place, silent. f 
In May, 1879, my brother found the birds breeding near Fort Garland, 
Colorado; it was too late in the season for their eggs, but in one nest he 
found two young birds; he says the old bird sat very close, only leaving 
when touched by his hand. The nest was built near the end of a hori- 
zontal limb of a pine tree, about ten feet from the ground, in an open, 
conspicuous situation. It was bulky, and coarsely constructed of twigs, 
sticks, strips of bark, rootlets, grass, moss, etc., and very deeply hollowed 
the bird, when on it, showing only part of her bill and tail, the latter point- 
ing almost directly upward. At a distance the nest would have been 
taken for a squirrel’s nest. 
Capt. Charles E. Bendire writes me that in the month of April, 1876-1878, 
he found in the vicinity of Camp Harney, Oregon, quite a number of 
_ their nests, similar to the one described above, at a height of from twenty- 
five to seventy-five feet from the ground, a few with eggs, and gives the 
following dimensions of four eggs: 1.30 X .92, 1.26 X .95, 1.22 X .95, 
I.20 X .goinches. He says the usualnumber is three; the ground color, 
light grayish green, irregularly spotted and blotched with a deeper shade 
of gray, principally about the larger end; the shape is elongated oval, 
considerably pointed at the smaller end. 
The following birds, taken in the State, were in the Goss Ornithological 
Collection at the time of the publication of my Revised Catalogue. 
Phalznoptilus nuttalli nitidus. FRosTED Poor-wiLL.—A _ single 
specimen, a female, shot by me at Neosho Falls, September 23, 1881, 
entered as Phalenofptilus nuttallz, has been since identified as this form. 
Grus canadensis. LirrLE BROwN CRANE.—This bird was omitted by 
oversight from the catalogue. It is not uncommon during migration. 
BIRD NOTES FROM LITTLE GULL ISLAND, SUF- 
HOWMKCOM INE xe 
BY BASIL HICKS DUTCHER. 
LittLE GuLi ISLAND is a member of the chain of islands that 
extends across the eastern end of Long Island from Orient Point, 
the northeastern extremity of Long Island, to Watch Hill, Rhode 
