2 Notes ON Rhode Island Ornithology. 



To turn to the portion of the work of interest to the ornitholo- 

 gist we find the casual mention of the commoner birds from time 

 to time and a few pages entirely devoted to birds, under the title 

 of ' The Bird Excursion,' or a supposed walk in the neighborhood 

 of Newport, on May 29, 1658. These particular pages men- 

 tion some thirty-two birds, all well known inhabitants of Rhode 

 Island, and the recording of them must be looked upon only as 

 of the year 1899, and not of the last half of the seventeenth 

 century. 



LETTERS. 

 Remarks on the Autumn Water Bird Migration at Sakonnet. 



Grant, Fla., Dec. 18, 1899. 



To the Editor of Notes on Rhode Island Ornithology : — 



All my notes about the fall shooting with dates etc. are at 

 Sakonnet, so I cannot be very exact in details. 



I have never known so poor a flight of the various shore birds 

 as occurred this past summer and fall in Rhode Island, at least 

 so far as my observations go. 



The locality is not a good one for shore bird shooting. The 

 marsh there does not lay well in the line of flight, and a large 

 percentage of the birds go by off-shore.' It is also overrun most 

 of the time by crabbers and that curse and nuisance to all decent 

 sportsmen, the "Peep Shooter." 



To illustrate this off-shore flight, I was a witness some years 

 ago of a very interesting sight. It was about the third week in 

 August, and had rained heavily in the night with some wind from 

 the southeast. At daylight it was quite foggy and the wind died 

 out almost to a calm. Flock after flock of the large Yellow Legs 



{Totamis ?nelanoleucus) came in from over the sea, made the land 

 near West Island, flew east about a mile, and went off to sea 



again. This continued until about 11 a. m. ; then the weather 

 cleared, and I saw no more of them ; they flew high and none 



were killed. There were more birds in that morning flight than 



I have ever seen in this locality all put together. It would have 



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