Vo'^^^^VJ Con;spon,lr,.,r. 2I3 



on linlit-colort'il l)ir(1s taki'ii duriiiL; llu' mitral ions in oIIkt parts of New 

 ICiif^iaiul ami t'lscuiierc. It t'oiiows as a matter of course liiat liiere is no 

 evicience, liistorieal or otlierwise, tliat Muskeget lias ever liarljored a " rec- 

 Of^nizalile local race" of the Short-eared Owl. It would he indeed remark- 

 ahle had such been the case, for the food resources of the island, except- 

 intj; during the brief season when the Terns are breediiiff there, are not 

 sulllcient to supply the wants of more than two or three families of Owls, 

 and a local race which at no one period of its existence could have been 

 represented by more than a score of individuals would be something of 

 an anomaly. 



In this connection it may be worth remarking (since the fact seems to 

 have been generally overlooked by American ornithologists) that there is 

 a very decided and constant difference in coloring between the sexes of 

 the Short-eared Owl, the males, when in fully adult plumage, being very 

 much lighter-colored than the females. I have several males taken dur- 

 ing the migrations at Ipswich, Massachusetts, as well asfrom the Pacific 

 Coast, which are almost as pale as the Muskeget birds, and there is not a 

 single fully adult male in vny large series which is as dark as the average 

 female. Dresser, in his 'Birds of Europe' (V, p. 25S), states that the 

 same sexual difference is found in Old World representatives of the Short- 

 eared Owl. Very truly yours, 



William Brewster. 



Cambridge, Mass. 

 March, 1898. 



An Untrustworthy Observer. 



Editors of 'The Auk': — 



Dear Sirs: — Those members of the A. O. U. who were present at the 

 meeting last November will doubtless recall a paper read by Mr. Edwin 

 Irvine Haines entitled 'The Summer Birds of the Catskill Mountains 

 with remarks upon the Faunie of the Region.' The paper indicated a 

 ' chumminess ' on the part of the birds that enabled the writer to fairly 

 rain down records of species that ordinarily, during the summer season, 

 are satisfied to keep out of the Catskills. Several sets of eggs of the Soli- 

 tary Sandpiper {Totatius solitariics), Canada Jay {Perisoreus canadensis), 

 and Ipswich Sparrow [Aynmodramus princeps) had been obtained, while 

 such species as the Hudsonian Chickadee (Pants hudsonicus^ and White- 

 crowned Sparrow {Zo?iotric/iia albicollis) had been found hobnobbing 

 with the equally abundant Dickcissel {Sfiza americana) and Tufted Tit- 

 mouse {Partis bicolor). A tray full of skins, chiefly without labels and 

 in winter plumage, was exhibited in support of the many extraordinary 

 discoveries of which the above are samples. On asking Mr. Haines.for 



