Notes from Field and Study 



229 



perched upright, one claw over its entangled 

 wing, and its eyes closed. After a little 

 difficulty, I managed to release it, and, 

 upon examination, found that none of 

 the tendons of the wing were injured, but 

 that the wing feathers were badly twisted 

 and broken. It must have put up a pretty 

 hard tussle before giving up, as it offered 

 no resistance when I was releasing it, 

 outside of a few clicks with its bill. 



I carried it to a bunch of evergreens 

 near-by, and there released it. A couple 

 of times it uttered a note very similar to 

 the mew of a kitten — the same note that 

 this Owl so often utters during the e\ e- 

 ning. 



This is the first time that I have found 

 a bird entangled, alive; but many times 

 I have seen the dead bodies of Coots, 

 Blue-winged Teal, Blackbirds, and others, 

 dangling from the barb-wires. — Adrian 

 Larsen, Sioux Falls, S. D. 



Note on the White-throated Sparrow 



In the March-April number of Bird- 

 Lore, I notice that Prof. W. W. Cooke 

 records the White-throated Sparrow as 

 "Rare, winter," in Philadelphia. I have 

 studied bird-life in Philadelphia for the 

 past ten years and have always found 

 the White-throated Sparrow to be a 

 common winter resident, arriving about 

 September 20, and leaving in May. 

 During this time the bird is often in song, 

 especially on moderate days, just before 

 sunset and early in the morning. In fact, 

 the White-throat is one of the common- 

 est winter birds in Fairmount Park and 

 Germantown, Philadelphia. — A. F. Hagar, 

 Princeton, N. J. 



A Vireo Courtship 



For sheer persistence in singing, the 

 Red-eyed Vireo finds few rivals on his 

 breeding-ground. The heat of summer 

 does not silence him; the molting period 

 depresses him surprisingly little. He 

 spends thirteen weeks with us of uninter- 

 rupted cheerfulness and energy expressed 

 in song. All day, until the sun sets, he 



sings, just pausing long enough between 

 his clear-cut, rapid phrases to snatch up 

 and swallow his food, until sunset, then he 

 is silent. 



In the morning twilight, when it is too 

 dark to see clearly, half an hour before 

 day, he sings without pause. Now, the 

 phrases follow each other very rapidly 

 and evenly with pulse-like regularity; 

 in sixty seconds he gives eighty. 



I once met this voluble, energetic bird 

 in a quiet mood, and at the time I made 

 this note of its actions (it was in Lexing- 

 ton, Mass., on May 30, 1909): 



"This afternoon about six o'clock, I 

 saw a pair of Red-eyed Vireos acting in a 

 manner new to me. They were in a small 

 gray birch tree, twelve feet from the 

 ground, and almost o\'er my head. The 

 two birds were very near each other; so 

 near that their bills might have touched, 

 although they did not. The male, or at 

 least the bird who played the active role, 

 faced the side of the other bird, so that 

 their bodies were at right angles. The 

 bird who, from her passive actions, I 

 assumed, but perhaps wrongly, to be the 

 female, sat crouched low on her perch, 

 with the feathers slightly puffed out. But, 

 although in the attitude of a sick bird, 

 she appeared in good health, I thought, 

 and I am certain, that she gave close 

 attention to the strange actions ot her 

 companion. The bird I have called the 

 male, and I think it is safe to so consider 

 him, was constantly in motion. He rocked 

 his body, especially his head, from side to 

 to side, his bill sweeping over the upper 

 parts of the other bird, never touching 

 her, nor, indeed, coming very near it, for 

 his head was above and a little to one 

 side of her back. In swinging from side 

 to side, he moved slowly, but with a tense- 

 ness suggesting strong emotion. In con- 

 trast to the fluffy female, the feathers of 

 the male were drawn closely about him, 

 so that he looked slim and sleek. The 

 neck seemed constricted, giving him a 

 strangled appearance. 



"Neither bird opened its beak, but one 

 of them continual!}' uttered, with no sug- 

 gestion of Vireo phrasing, some faint notes 



