240 



Bird - Lore 



helpless condition and died the same after- 

 noon. The next day, those interested hav- 

 ing failed positively to identify it, the bird 

 was sent to the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences at Philadelphia to be stuffed and 

 identified. 



It appears that the bird was a Red 

 Phalarope in winter plumage, the first of 

 its species ever recorded in Pennsylvania. 

 The Red Phalarope is an exclusively mari- 

 time bird, and this specimen only occurred 

 thus far inland because of two days of 

 foggy and rainy weather during which it 

 had evidently lost its direction. 



This specimen, because of its scientific 

 value, will remain in the local collection 

 at the Academy of Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia, Pa. — Olney Raymond, 

 George School, Bucks Co., Pa. 



A Tardy Evening Grosbeak 



A female Evening Grosbeak was seen 

 here May 2, 1919. — John P. Young, 

 Williamsport, Pa. 



'Crazy' Grouse 



I live on the lake-shore, with a small 

 fringe of trees over the bluff between my 

 residence and the lake. As far back as I 

 can remember, there comes a time in the 

 fall, about September 15, when Partridges 

 behave in a very peculiar way. I thought, 

 until this year, that it was due to the break- 

 ing up of the covies, or that they were dis- 

 turbed by hunters at that time, yet this 

 explanation was not entirely satisfactory 

 to me. This year there was no Partridge 

 hunting in our state, but conditions re- 

 mained the same. 



About that time of the year, that is 

 about September 15, I have noticed that 

 Partridges about my residence are very 

 erratic in their flight. I have picked up as 

 many as five in one forenoon that have 

 flown against windows and buildings. I 

 got two one morning that, after having 

 been disturbed, flew against the side of a 

 green, painted barn. I picked up another 

 this fall, a matured bird, that, in a 

 practically open piece of ground, flew 



against the side of a summer cottage. I 

 saw the bird do it. This does not happen 

 at any other season of the year. Can you 

 offer any explanation? — A. A. Swinton, 

 Charlevoix, Mich. 



[In reply we quote from Seton's 'Wild 

 Animals I Have Known': 



"By a strange law of nature, not wholly 

 without parallel among mankind, all 

 Partridges go crazy in the November 

 moon of their first year. They become 

 possessed of a mad hankering to get away 

 somewhere, it does not matter much 

 where. And the wisest of them do all sorts 

 of foolish things at this period. They go 

 drifting perhaps, at speed over the country 

 by night, and are cut in two by wires, or 

 dash into lighthouses, or locomotive 

 headlights. Daylight finds them in all 

 sorts of absurd places — in buildings, in 

 open marshes, perched on telephone wires 

 in a great city, or even on board coasting 

 vessels. The craze seems to be a relic of a 

 by-gone habit of migration, and it has at 

 least one good effect, it breaks up the 

 families and prevents the constant inter- 

 marrying, which would surely be fatal to 

 their race. It always takes the young 

 badly their first year, and they may have 

 it again the second fall, for it is very catch- 

 ing; but in the third season it is practically 

 unknown." — Editor.] 



Starlings Spreading in New York State 



From my own observations and from 

 those of my friends here, I have proved 

 that the Starling is beginning to spread 

 toward the east-central part of New York 

 state. 



Last spring, for the first time, I was 

 attracted by a new bird-call in an old 

 grove near my home. I could not tell 

 exactly the kind of bird it was, and thought 

 perhaps it might be a Blackbird of some 

 species. Later there were at least a half- 

 dozen of them. They stayed about two 

 weeks and then disappeared. They were 

 very shy and flew before I could get near 

 enough to observe them with my glasses. 



I did not think of the Starling, knowing 

 that they were found farther south, nearer 



