6 Bulletin No. 12. 



ran to the assistance of the horse, and using his gun as a club, he knocked 

 the eagle to the ground. It started to attack the man, but he fought it off, 

 and finally the bird rose to the limb of a tree near by. From this point 

 the hunter brot the eagle to the ground by a well directed shot." Mr 

 Wilson saw the horse and vouches for the story. He says that the 

 bird measured eight feet from tip to tip of wings.— Editor. 



American Goldfinch, Sfinns iristis. — At Overbrook, Pa., on the 

 morning of Jan. 8, a male of this species was seen sitting on a fence. He 

 flew away at my approach, and uttered the ordinary note. This is the first 

 time I have seen this bird in winter, although it is common in summer. 



Russell Gray, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Western Semi-palmated Sandpiper, Ereiinetes Occident a lis, in N. 

 J. — In looking over my series of less than a dozen skins of the Semi- 

 palmated Sandpiper recently, I discovered an unquestionable specimen of 

 the Ereimetes occidenialis. It was a female taken August 31st, '91, 

 with several E. ^pusillus, from the meadows near Atlantic City, New 

 Jersey. Stone, in his Birds of A r ezc Jersey and Eastern Pennsyl- 

 vania gives it as a straggler, and Chapman, in Birds of Eastern North 

 America as occasional on the Atlantic coast. Bailey (Auk, Vol. xn. p. 

 174) found -it more' abundant than the Semi-palmated in Cape May 

 county, N. J., during the first two weeks in September, 1895, and his 

 concluding remark " that it may not be as accidental as heretofore sup- 

 posed" is apparently well founded. Eastern collectors would do well to 

 scan their specimens labelled E. puszllus with care and record every 

 occurance of the western species on the Atlantic coast, so that it may be 

 possible to determine whether the extension of its range is of common 

 occurrence within recent years. 



Frank L. Burns, Berzvyn, Pa. 



Unusual Actions of Sparrows. — Of the many who have interested 

 themselves in the general traits and habits of any group of the higher 

 classes of wild animals, there are few who have not found some peculiar- 

 ity or individuality, transmitted or acquired, in an isolated example of 

 some species or other. It is impossible to detect such so-called eccen- 

 tricities unless the observer be familiar with the regular habits of the 

 species, and even then it may prove to be the rule under different sur- 

 roundings, when it is the exception in the locality in which the observa- 

 tions were made. I will relate two instances of marked departure from 



