THE BIOLOGICAL REVIEW. IOI 



Menda migratoria. — Common, breeding about Port Arthur. 



Sialia sialis. — Observed breeding near the railway camps 

 about eighty miles south-west of Port Arthur. None were seen 

 around the town. 



The general plumage of the birds was very poor, especially 

 the sandpipers and ducks, the gulls being in the most 

 perfect plumage of any of the birds secured or observed- 

 The impression is that the birds do not attain the full plumage 

 until they reach a more southern resting place. All the 

 migration seemed to be directly south with strong-flying birds 

 like ducks and plover, while the smaller species left us by the 

 south-west, following the lake shore as far as Duluth, where 

 they could then strike south across Minnesota. The first sign of 

 movement began about August ist, and was noticed among the 

 sandpipers, followed by the ducks, the smaller birds not moving 

 much until after September ioth. 



G. E. Atkinson. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Coccyzus americanus nesting.— On July 9, while walk- 

 ing in the scrub bush on Wells' Hill, I found a nest of the 

 Yellow-billed Cuckoo. I satisfactorily identified the bird but, 

 as it was Sunday, I had no means of collecting it. On the 

 following morning I returned and secured the bird, which proved 

 to beacf. I waited and visited the spot several times, but saw 

 no trace of the ? ; she had evidently been killed. 



The nest was a rough, loose structure made of twigs, placed 

 loosely on a crotch formed by a grape vine crossing a hawthorn 

 limb. I had to tie it all over with string before I dared move it. 

 It contained one egg, which was partly incubated but was quite 

 cold, which would show that the bird had not occupied the nest 

 for some time ; and as the cT remained in the neighborhood, it 

 would show that the nest was not deserted, but that the 9 had 

 been killed. 



