November, 1881.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



71 



in they found him lying on the bed; he un- 

 covered his side, and showed them where 

 the bullet had entered ; a piece ot the fore- 

 head was blown off, and had exposed the 

 brains, without having bled much. He 

 begged they would take his rifle and blow 

 out his brains, and he would give them all 

 the money he had in his trunk. He often 

 said, ' I am no coward ; but I am so strong, 

 so hard to die.' 



" He begged the servant not to be afraid 

 of him for that he would not hurt hini. He 

 expired in about two hours, just as the sun 

 rose above the trees. He lies buried close 

 by the common path, with a few loose rails 

 thrown over his grave. I gave Grinder mon- 

 ey to put a post fence round it to shelter it 

 from the hogs and from the wolves; and he 

 gave me his written promise he would do it. 



" I left this place in a very melancholy 

 mood, which was not much allayed by the 

 prospect of the gloomy and savage wilder- 

 ness which I was just entering alone." 



Notes from Maine. 



In the Ornithologist for September I 

 noticed an article by M. H., from Camden, 

 entitled, "'Notes from Maine." From in- 

 dications in the article I am led to believe 

 that M. H. lives in the very near vicinity 

 of Bangor, and hence his observations 

 would be largely made in this portion of 

 our State. As several statements therein 

 made do not accord with the observations 

 of myself, or of other field workers in this 

 vicinity, I would like to present a few notes 

 on points mentioned. 



M. H. says : " For ten years at least I 

 have not seen a common House Wren, al- 

 though formerly very abundant. I can find 

 no one who remembers havi' g seen one for 

 years." House Wrens built in aliouse pro- 

 vided for their accommodation in my gar- 

 den for a series of years, to, and including 

 1879, in which year I took the nest and 

 eggs, and removed the house. Had I not 

 taken away tlieir abiding place I should ex- 

 pect them to still resort to their old home. 

 This case was not exceptional, as I knew 



of other pairs breeding in different parts of 

 the city at the same time, and my personal 

 observations are of course limited. 



The House Sparrow, European, he says, 

 "has visited us in winter for the last two 

 years, but have never seen any after March. 

 They have come and gone at about the 

 same dates as the Snow Bunting." I would 

 mention that this year they did not disap- 

 pear in March. I have seen them contin- 

 ually through the past summer, and have 

 seen them feeding their young on the streets 

 of our city — showing they bred here the 

 past season. To-day, October i8th, I saw 

 a flock of a dozen or more. 



Hawks, in my opinion, aie not so un- 

 common as might be inferred from M. H.'s 

 remarks. Undoubtedly they are more nu- 

 merous in other localities, and their nests 

 are not often met with here — I found but 

 one the past season, exclusive of Fish 

 Hawks', of which I took several. This 

 mav probably be explained by the fact that 

 suitable localities for breeding are so nu- 

 merous that the chances for finding their 

 nests are correspondingly small. 



Nearly every time I am out gunning, par- 

 ticularly in the fall, I see one or more, and 

 during the past year I have obtained seven 

 different species in this immediate vicinity, 

 viz: Sparrow, Pigeon, Marsh, Sharp-shinned, 

 Red-shouldered, Fish, and Goshawk. 



Sandpipers are frequently seen to dive 

 and swim under water as described by M. 

 H. I have often seen it and have had oth- 

 ers speak of being witnesses of their nat- 

 atorial abilities. The past summer I saw 

 a young Spotted Sandpiper — in the down — 

 on being chased by a dog take to the water 

 and keep away from its pursuer by div- 

 ing and swimming under water, using its 

 wings for propellers. This was kept up for 

 fully fifteen minutes, till the little swimmer 

 had liaffled t'is pursuer. 



Blue-birds are quite common with us at 

 present, having, as M. H. says, increased in 

 numbers of late years. Thoreau, in "Maine 

 Woods," mentions it as a remarkable fact 

 that while the Blue-bird is common in most 

 parts of Maine, it is unknown in the vicini 

 ty of Bangor. This, however, is no longer 

 irue.^ Harry Merrill, Bangor, Maine. 



