338 General Notes. [October 
attacked in a similar manner. All were partially decayed, and were lying 
on the ground. I was unable to find any on the trees which showed any 
marks of the Woodpecker’s bill. The owner of this grove was surprised 
when I called his attention to the above facts, which were quite new to 
him. Nor had any of the other orange growers in the neighborhood any 
knowledge of this orange-eating habit of the Red-bellied Woodpecker.— 
WILLIAM BREWSTER, Cambridge, Mass. 
The Fish Crow (Corvus osstfragus) in Connecticut.—I have the pleas- 
ure of recording a few notes on the Fish Crow in this State. For several 
years I have detected birds of the Crow family along the shore, which, 
from the notes, method of flight, and apparently smaller size almost con- 
vinced me they were Fish Crows, but until this season had no opportunity 
to verify the belief. On the 10th of May I killed a fine specimen in an 
extensive tract of swampy woods bordering a salt marsh in Stratford, and 
saw two others at the same time; the latter, being highly excited at the 
disappearance of the other, circled about some time calling loudly but 
finally quieted without offering a shot. Many times afterward I saw the 
birds, and others, seeing no less than four at one time (May 29), all mature 
birds. The one secured, although a male. showed evidence of having 
assisted in incubation, but owing to the dense and almost impassable 
nature of this swamp no nest was found. 
In Fairfield, a pair was seen many times, and a nest found atone it was 
entirely finished, but I watched them so persistently that they soon de- 
serted. They must have reared young elsewhere, as subsequently on sev- 
eral occasions previous tothe middle of June they exhibited much alarm 
at my approach, circling about overhead by the hour in a highly vexed and 
tireless fashion, following me sometimes for halfa mile. Although I saw 
no young I need no better evidence than their actions to convince me that 
they were breeding. 
Linsley in his ‘Catalogue of the Birds of Connecticut’ gave the Fish 
Crow as occurring at ‘‘Stratford,” but added no further remarks. Within 
one or two years others have been taken here, of which no record has been 
published. It is not common, but it may be called nota rare bird, and I 
think has been largely overlooked from its resemblance to Corvus amerc- 
canus. 1 feel confident the species also winters here, as I have several 
times seen what certainly appeared to be Fish Crows, feeding on the sand 
bars at low tide, retiring to the woods at high tide, and never associating 
with the common species.—EDwIN H. Eames, bridgeport, Connecticut. 
Mortality among Eave Swallows.—A calamity which has affected two 
or three species in this section may be worth chronicling. Early in the 
month of June, 1889, I was asked by two or three persons as to what had 
become of the Eave Swallows (Petrochelidon luntfrons), it being reported 
that but very few were to be seen. An investigation revealed the fact that 
not over five per cent of them were to be found. They had, however, come 
in their usual numbers earlier in the season. An examination of the 
newly completed nests revealed dead birds in nearly every nest, Large 
