Notes from Field and Study 



375 



of the water that salt pork had been boiled 

 in was standing near our back-door, a 

 scum of white fat on this was attracting 

 large numbers of flies. We think poor old 

 'Chickadee' must have alighted on the 

 treacherous fat to catch flies, and his 

 weight broke it through, as his tiny body 

 was found floating in the grease, quite 

 dead. We were very sorry, as he had been 

 with us so many years, and was so tame, 

 though he had never been caged. I have 

 tamed quite a number of Chickadees since, 

 but none have shown such confidence 

 as my little friend. — John Woodcock, 

 Bethany, Mass. 



Rare Winter Birds in Massachusetts 



On January 8, 19 13, in company with a 

 friend, I visited Lynn Beach and Nahant, 

 to see what birds were about. We found 

 an immense flock of Herring Gulls gathered 

 along the beach (it was about half tide), 

 and among them several Great Black- 

 backed Gulls were prominent. Our 

 attention was soon attracted to one bird 

 different from the rest. It was somewhat 

 larger than the Herring Gulls, all white 

 except the bill and legs, which were of a 

 sort of flesh-color, the tip of the bill being 

 dark. The white was not pure but slightly 

 yellowish. We had a good chance to 

 examine it with glasses from a distance 

 of only four or five rods. This description 

 tallies exactly with the Glaucous Gull, as 

 given in Brewster's "Birds of the Cam- 

 bridge Region." He calls this the im- 

 mature plumage, but Dr. Townsend, in 

 "Birds of Essex County," calls it the "old 

 age" plumage. All authorities agree, how- 

 ever, that the Glaucous Gull is rarely 

 seen here, and this is my excuse for this 

 item. 



The unusually mild winter up to Feb- 

 ruary 1 has apparently tempted some birds 

 to stay with us longer than usual. 



Four Fox Sparrows seem to have settled 

 down for the winter in the Arnold Arbore- 

 tum, Boston. I have seen them several 

 times, the last being January 19. I have 

 not been there since then. 



December 21, 1 found a Brown Thrasher 



in the Arnold Arboretum, but he did not 

 seem to be very lively. I fear the cool 

 weather was too much for him. — Edward 

 H. Atherton, Roxbury, Mass. 



Henslow's and Savanna Sparrows 

 on Long Island 



Great South Bay, Long Island, is a 

 large body of water stretching far to the 

 east from Fire Island Inlet, its only open- 

 ing to the ocean. At its eastern end it be- 

 comes comparatively narrow, and then 

 broadens again into the East or Moriches 

 Bay, a brackish body of water, with 

 negligible rise and fall of tide. On July 6, 

 191 2, at Mastic, in company with Mrs. 

 Nichols, the writer paddled in a canoe 

 from the narrows between the two bays, 

 up a small creek full of mud shallows and 

 turtles, to a wet, fresh meadow where 

 pink orchids were growing among the 

 grasses. On one of some more-or-less 

 isolated bushes in this meadow was a 

 little round Sparrow singing its peculiar 

 unfamiliar song, sque-zeek! Closer ap- 

 proach identified it with certainty as the 

 Henslow's Sparrow. The writer has no 

 doubt that it was breeding, though the 

 species is little, if at all, known as a breed- 

 ing bird on Long Island. 



On June 28, 1913, also at Mastic, the 

 writer stopped to examine some Grass- 

 hopper Sparrows at a little open golf- 

 course bordering on Moriches Bay. He 

 chanced to bring his binoculars to bear on 

 a bird which was chipping from the sum- 

 mit of a fence-post, evidently with nest 

 or young close by, and was surprised to 

 find it a Savanna Sparrow, a species whose 

 breeding on Long Island is little known. 

 It was examined closely, leaving no ques- 

 tion as to its identity. On July 5 we landed 

 at the same point and found two of them. 

 They were worried by our presence, and 

 we started to search for the nest, when 

 one flew to a patch of bare sand and 

 pointed out a young bird of the species. 

 It had much the same sharp marking as 

 the adult, its breast was strongly yellow- 

 ish, sharply striped with black, and its 

 tail squarish and ridiculously short. It 



