June, 1881.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



ol 



The Snow Owl is a common Avinter res- 

 ident with us, there are a number of speci- 

 mens in town, and some are seen every 

 winter. 



March 1st, Crow Blackbirds appeared. 

 7th, Fox Sparrows ; 8th, Red- winged Black- 

 birds; 11th, During the snow storm yes- 

 terday the birds all disappeared; bxit 

 where ? 21st, I had a near and full view 

 of a flock of Fox Sparrows and heard 

 them sing. Charming songsters. 28th, a 

 Red-tailed Hawk plunged into a brush 

 heap this morning, (probably in pursuit of 

 game) and got entangled and stripj^^ed the 

 feathers from its wings about half the 

 length of the quills. It was drawn out by 

 a boy, from whom the Hawk escaped. I 

 saw it afterwards flying just over the tops 

 of the trees. It had a strange aj^pearance 

 in the air, and flew with apparent difficulty. 

 How many more feathers could have been 

 lost and still the Hawk been able to fly ? 



April 2d. Large numbers of Gulls 

 {Kittewakes) were in the river, floating 

 along like diicks. Occasionally one would 

 rise up and fly a short distance and sink 

 down agai:i^ into the water. This gull o^- 

 pears here in the fore part of April and 

 departs early in November. I never saw 

 them in the water before. 3d, Phoebe 

 birds appeared in niambers this morning. 

 4th, White- bellied swallows. 9th. Cow 

 Birds and Wood Pewees came to-day. A 

 few common snow birds still remain. 18th, 

 Prof. Hutchinson shot two of Wilson's 

 Snipe, so says Mr. Rawson, who saw them. 

 14th, Belted Kingfisher, toward evening. 

 18th, Field Sparrows. 22d. the Brown 

 Thresher appeared to-da^ . This is nmch 

 earlier than usual. 25th, Chewinks, black 

 and white Creepers and House W^rens 

 cheered us with their presence to-day, for 

 the first time this spring. 



May 1st. This evening I heard the wel- 

 come voice of the WhijD-poor-will near the 

 house of Mr. Jeremiah Davis. His son 

 told me he had heard it for two or three 

 evenings previous. 2d. This morning came 

 the Cat-bird. White-eyed Vireo and Wood 



Thrush. 3d, Summer Yellow Bird and 

 Baltimore Oriole. Mr. John Biirroughs 

 says that the Baltimore builds on the south 

 and west sides of the tree. There are two 

 or three within sight of me now, that are 

 on the east side. It would seem that some 

 members of the Thrush family (Robin, 

 Wood Thrush, Cat-bird and BroA\Ti Thresh- 

 er) sing later in the evening than any 

 others of our songsters. They are often 

 heard until it is quite dark. The Chipping 

 Sparrow will break out at times in the 

 night for a moment and then sink back to 

 sleep again, but the song of this bird is 

 substantially finished before dusk. 



July 25th. A boy brought me a yoimg 

 male Green Heron {Ardeavirescens) which 

 he says he procured in the adjoining town 

 of Preston, where it was probably hatched. 



Sept. 24th. Mr. Young tells me he shot 

 a Red-bellied Nut-hatch to-day. I have oc- 

 casionally shot one of this species, but it 

 is shy and with us a scarce bird. Some 

 seasons I do not see a single specimen. 

 The White-bellied Nut-hatch is very com- 

 mon and a constant resident. 



Nov. 28th. The White-throated Spar- 

 rows and Fox Sparrows linger yet. 



Mr. George Case, who is a careful ob- 

 server, told me that he saw on the 7th and 

 9th of December flocks of 12 or 15 White- 

 winged Cross-bills. 



Dec. 28th. Goldfinches are plentiful 

 this winter. Mr. Case, who is a botanist, 

 says they open the pods of the Evening 

 Primrose and extract the seeds; while 

 the Tree Sparrow {Spizella monticola) 

 shakes the stalk and in that way detaches 

 the seed from the pod. The Chicadee 

 finds a grub in a kind of sack on the Gol- 

 den rod which food it seems to enjoy huge- 

 ly. There are more Shrikes in our town 

 than usual this winter, even early in the 

 season they were exceedingly abundant. 

 Pine Linnets somewhat scarce. Yellow 

 Crowned Kinglets (another of our winter 

 residents), usually appear in October, about 

 the middle, but this winter only in small 

 numbers, as it appears to me. Song spar- 



