The Season 



169 



in bloom for only a few days, and the 

 dicentra or Dutchman's breeches was but 

 just appearing. There was but little evi- 

 dence of "the tender grays of the woods 

 being brightened by the soft reds, yellows, 

 and greens" that make the springtime 

 woodlands the delight of those having the 

 artistic temperament. 



The Bohemian Waxwings, which have 

 been so well represented throughout the 

 state during the past winter, are still here. 

 A flock of 25 to 30 established themselves 

 at the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. F. W. 

 Commons at Lake Minnetonka during the 

 first week of April and exhibited a feeding 

 trait that was both curious and interesting. 

 When the sap began to run in the many 

 sugar maple trees about the house, it oozed 

 from numerous cracks and abrasions in the 

 bark (caused by freezing?) and ran from 

 the ends of broken twigs, forming in the 

 latter places little icicles. The Waxwings 

 fancied this sap and fed eagerly from the 

 little pools on the trunks and larger 

 branches of the trees. To secure the sap 

 dripping from the ends of the twigs, the 

 birds fluttered in mid-air, hummingbird- 

 fashion, and drank the rapidly forming 

 drops from the tips of the pendant icicles! 

 Between times they hawked for insects 

 from the topmost branches of the taller 

 trees. Thus the Waxwing and the Sap- 

 sucker, under favoring conditions, seem 

 possessed of similar tastes, though they go 

 about gratifying their appetites in very 

 different ways. 



The great thickness of the ice on the 

 lakes and the heavy blanket of snow during 

 the winter just passed developed condi- 

 tions that caused the destruction of vast 

 numbers of fish in the shallower lakes of 

 Minnesota. Fish of all kinds and sizes 

 were thus 'smothered,' and even the 

 hibernating frogs and turtles succumbed. 

 With the melting of the ice, the dead and 

 decaying fish were thrown up on the 

 shores in great windrows. Herring and 

 Ring-billed Gulls arriving about this time 

 assembled at such places in large flocks 

 and have been busy ever since devouring 

 the putrefying and malodorous piles of 

 fish that were a nuisance and menace to 



the nearby settlers. At one such place, 

 visited by the writer on April 14, Herring 

 Gulls predominated, with only a few Ring- 

 bills present, though elsewhere the latter 

 species was reported in large numbers. 

 German carp, two to two and a half feet 

 long and weighing twelve to fifteen pounds, 

 were too big and heavy for the Gulls to 

 manage, the eyes, apparently, being the 

 only vulnerable parts. But the sunfish, 

 black bass, crappies, perch, bull-pouts, etc., 

 were being disposed of rapidly. The great 

 value of Gulls as scavengers is well exem- 

 plified under such conditions. — Thomas S. 

 Roberts, Zoological Museum, University 

 of Minnesota, Minneapolis. 



Kansas City Region. — Late winter 

 notes from the Eton Bend of the Missouri 

 River and the Courtney region, furnished 

 by William Andrews, indicate that the 

 usual early movement of Mallards, Pintails, 

 Mergansers, Red-breasted Mergansers, 

 and Canada and Snow Geese gave promise 

 this year of exceeding in numbers the spring 

 flights of several years past. This careful 

 observer also noted a pair of Loons feeding 

 about the edge of an ice-field near his 

 home, and, on February 14, saw 39 Snow 

 Geese and 17 Canada Geese crowded out 

 of an eddy in the Missouri River by a rush 

 of pack ice. A flock of over 200 Rusty 

 Blackbirds was observed by Mr. Andrews 

 in his neighborhood during this season, and 

 an unusual northward movement of thou- 

 sands of Juncos was noted during the last 

 week of February. A few miles below this 

 region another trustworthy observer states 

 that a flock of about 150 Blue Geese, 

 accompanied by a lone Snow Goose, re- 

 mained on an inaccessible bar in the 

 Missouri River from February 2 2 to April 4, 

 when their place was taken by thousands 

 of Mallards and Scaup. 



A letter from Johnson Neff', Marionville, 

 Mo., mentions a large list of winter birds 

 seen, giving 34 species as the average 

 number noted in a day afield. Mr. Neff's 

 careful notes conclude with the cheerful 

 statement that Ducks and Geese are more 

 abundant than for several years. He states 

 further that a Sandhill Crane was killed 



