Notes from Field and Study 



209 



drank out of the bottles, fighting for first 

 turn. 



By and by a Purple Finch flew in. He 

 would like some hemp seed, if you please. 

 "No! Nothing else would do." He preferred 



FROM AUGUST 1 TO 20, HUMMINGBIRDS 

 CAME ALL DAY LONG TO THIS THIRD-FLOOR 

 WINDOW IN A SUMMER HOTEL IN MAINE 



Pill-bottles covered with turkey-red and filled 



with sugar and water enticed them 15 minutes 



after they were put out 



it cracked, but as that was only to be found 

 on the hostess' hand, a very small quantity 

 was consurned. 



The Junco came along now, very shy and 

 self-conscious. He would not say what he 

 liked but sampled a little hemp seed and then 

 a little doughnut crumbs, found them both 

 good, and said he would come again. Success 

 was now assured, five dozen doughnuts and 

 over six pounds of hemp seed being eaten 

 before the place closed on September 20. — 

 Eleonora S. Moegan, Northeast Harbor, 

 Maine. 



Egrets on Long Island 



In 192 1, there were at least six American 

 Egrets summering in the marshlands of the 

 Nissequogue River and of Stony Brook 

 Harbor, and on the sand-flats of Smithtown 

 Bay on Long Island Sound. On or about 

 July 26, I saw one bird, and up to September 



7, had seen one or a pair several times; but 

 on that day I came upon six of them feeding 

 all near together on the river flats. A friend 

 of mine tells me he has been as close to them 

 as 50 feet. 



The birds were around most of the summer. 

 Farmers by the shore speak of seeing them, 

 and I am led to believe they could be seen 

 near the marshes almost any day. On 

 September 10, while automobiling along the 

 river, I saw four Egrets, breast-high in the 

 water, not more than 75 yards away. 



Exactly five years ago. Egrets (one or two 

 individuals) were observed in this vicinity — 

 to wdt, about the inland tidal marshes of 

 Setauket and Stony Brook. I remember 

 seeing one bird myself in company with a 

 Creat Blue Heron; and I recall several suc- 

 cessful pilgrimages made by people to the 

 marshes, though I find neither in The Auk 

 nor in Bird-Lore mention of the 1916 

 occurrence. 



Phenomenal last year was the presence of 

 so many Egrets. Eaton, in Volume I of his 

 'Birds of New York,' published in 1909, gives 

 26 records, from 1856 to 1890, of the Egret 

 in New York State. A note by Mr. John 

 Treadwell Nichols in The Auk for July, 1914, 

 records a bird seen by him at Mastic, L. I., 

 in August, 1913 — a year of another marked 

 Egret flight. Research, however, has not 

 brought to my eyes any published records 

 since then, though — and this is important — 

 talk with life-long residents of this com- 

 munity suffices to show that Egrets occur 

 here not extremely rarely, but merely un- 

 usually. — James W. Lane, Jr., St. James, L.I. 



An American Egret in Eastern 

 Massachusetts 



In the latter part of August, 1920, I ob- 

 served an American Egret in a small pond in 

 Newbury, Mass. I was within 100 feet of it, 

 and there was no doubt as to its identifica- 

 tion. Its body was entirely white, slightly 

 smaller than that of the Great Blue Heron, 

 its legs black, and its bill yellow. I had ob- 

 served Great Blue Herons and Bitterns in 

 the same pond many times. The Egret 

 rarely moved as it stood in the water. It 

 remained around the pond about ten days. — 

 Henry Curtis Ahl, Newbury, Mass, 



