226 



Bird -Lore 



opportunity to study him closely, and 

 hear his tse tse tse truey truey. I do riot 

 see the female, but believe there must be 

 one nestmg near. 



Goldfinches are always abundant here, 

 but never more so than this year; liter- 

 ally hundreds of them came in May. 



Bluebirds seem all but extinct. Pos- 

 sibly this may be due to the extraordinarily 

 severe winter. — Anne E. Perkins, M.D., 

 Collins, N. Y. 



Unusual Visitors in Massachusetts 



The South Shore of Massachusetts is 

 such a famous summer resort that even 

 the birds seem to be aware of its advan- 

 tages. To paraphrase the society papers, 

 "among the notable visitors from a dis- 

 tance" I wish to report a Cardinal and 

 a Carolina Wren, observed in Duxbury 

 last summer, and a Lark Bunting noted 

 at Marshfield in June, 1907. 



None of these are shot-gun identifi- 

 cations, but I believe them to be positive, 

 nevertheless. The Carolina Wren I heard 

 singing on several week-end visits, but 

 it was not until September that I was 

 able to observe and fully identify the 

 bird, although it haunted my apple trees. 



The Cardinal I report for the observer, 

 Mr. Paul C. Peterson, of Duxbury, who 

 wrote me June 10, 191 1, as follows: "I 

 was out in my garden and saw this beau- 

 tiful red bird. I was within twenty-five 

 feet of him and had a very good view. The 

 female was with him, but not much for 

 looks." A visit to the Boston Natural 

 History Museum brought instant recog- 

 nition. The birds were also observed 

 about June first by a summer resident. 



My own most notable record was made 

 June 9, 1907, while driving at Green 

 Harbor, Marshfield. A black bird with 

 white wing patches was feeding with some 

 English sparrows in the roadside chaff. 

 The bird being absolutely strange to me, 

 I observed it very carefully, and, as it 

 proved quite fearless, I was able to get 

 close enough to note even the shape of its 

 bill and feet, and to identify it as one of 

 the FringillidcB — all black except the 



wing coverts and a few lesser white mark- 

 ings. It seemed very fond of the half-ripe 

 achenes of the wayside dandelions, which 

 it obtained by jumping from the ground 

 and biting through the base of the fiower- 

 heads, each time alighting with a mouth- 

 ful of the white pappus. At home. Chap- 

 man's 'Handbook' gave me no assistance 

 whatever, and neither did my other books 

 on New England birds until in Reed's 

 little Pocket Guide I found a portrait and 

 a brief description of the Lark Bunting, 

 Calamospiza melanocorys, — " Range, — 

 Western U.S., from Kansas to Colorado 

 and north to Assiniboia." Chamberlain's 

 Nuttall says it "has been seen in Massa- 

 chusetts and Long Island, — the only 

 instances of its occurrence east of the 

 Great Plains." A female was shot in 

 Maine a year or two ago, and is in the 

 Boston collection. — John B. May, M.D., 

 Wahan, Mass. 



A Long Island Brown Pelican 



On Sunday, May 26, Mr. L. Griscom 

 and I made a trip to Oak Island Beach, 

 L. I., and vicinity, to study shore and 

 marsh birds. At the extreme western 

 end of Oak Island Beach, on the bay side, 

 we saw a Brown Pelican, Pelicanus fuscus. 

 The bird was seen first standing in shallow 

 water a few rods from the shore. We 

 watched it from 1:45 P-^. until 3:30 p.m., 

 when we left to take a boat to the main 

 land. During that time it swam about, 

 preened itself, caught food, and rested 

 quietly in the water. Mr. Griscom used 

 a 9-power Bausch binocular, and I had a 

 Lemaire field-glass of about 5-power. We 

 got within 100 to 125 yards from the bird 

 and studied it at our leisure. Glasses, 

 however, were not needed to identify it. 

 As this is, probably, the second record for 

 New York state, we shall be glad to have 

 it published in Bird-Lore. — Julius M. 

 Johnson, New York City. 



How the Gulls Won the Vote 



About three years ago, the Beverly 

 flats became suddenly and mysteriously 



