Flight of Land Birds on Monomoy Is- 

 land, Cape Cod, Mass. 



BT JOHN C. CAHOON. 



A flight of land birds tools place on this is- 

 land on or about September 17th. 



The wind blew fresh from the north lor sev- 

 eral days preceded with cool weather, and this 

 had no doubt started the birds on their south- 

 ward journey. 



The first notice that I had of the presence of 

 these birds was on the morning of the 17th, 

 when Mr. J. Whiting, a gentleman that was 

 with me at the time, and myself were over on 

 the high beach after Plover. While in my blind 



my. 1887.] 



AKD OOLOGIST. 



a large flock of Barn and White-bellied Swal- 

 lows flew past towards the north, and in a few 

 moments returned, flying south. There were 

 several hundred in the flock and it was com- 

 posed of young and adults. 



Shortly after Mr. Whiting started four Gold- 

 en-winged Woodpeckers out of the beach grass 

 and secured two specimens. A Winter Wren 

 visited him in his blind and hopped along over 

 his gun, and for this apparent unconcern for 

 man he escaped with his life. Mr. Whiting also 

 saw a Fox-colored Sparrow near a marsh while 

 on his way to the boat. 



In the afternoon we made a visit to a small 

 swamp on the middle part of the island. This 

 swamp is composed of a thick growth of beech, 

 plumb, bayberry and other bushes, with wild 

 briers in abundance. It is small, not contain- 

 ing over one-fourth of an acre. 



On our way over the swamp we found Savan- 

 nah and Song Sparows abundant. 



Our flrst capture was an adult male Blue Yel- 

 low-backed Warbler, which I shot from a small 

 bunch of bushes. On arriving at the swamp 

 we saw some six or more Golden-winged Wood- 

 peckers make off, and although I shot several I 

 could not And them, as the bushes were so 

 thick where they fell. After spending several 

 hours in hard, tiresome work tramping through 

 and around the swamp, as the rents in Mr. W.'s ^ 

 trousers could testify, we started back for the 

 house, deciding that the swamp was "bad med- 

 icine." 



The following is a list of the birds we saw : 

 Golden-winged Woodpeckers, six seen. Cedar 

 Waxwings, saw a flock of five and two shot; 

 one male adult and one young. Hermit Thrush 

 {tol. com.), keeping close in the thick bushes, 

 Yellow Warbler (tol. com.), all seen and one 

 shot, adult male. Saw and shot one female 

 Redstart. Several (yg.) Maryland Yellow- 

 throats seen. We also saw several other small 

 birds that we could not identify. 



The next morning, the 18th, we went over to 

 the swamp to see if there was any increase in 

 birds, but didn't notice any. Saw a Pigeon 

 Hawk make a dive down into the swamp after 

 a small bird, which it missed. While returning, 

 started a Short-eared Owl out of the beach 

 grass, and he alighted some distance ahead, 

 down near a sand hole, as I thought. I tramped 

 about the place, but could not flush him, and 

 was just giving up the search when I saw a 

 Sparrow Hawk dart down at something on the 

 sand a short distance ahead of me. At each 

 dart I heard a note that I knew came from the 

 owl, and looking closely saw it directly below 



185 



second bu IT- '° "^-^ hawk the 



w^s out Of gu'/Zr"' '''' ''"^ 



The same Ctnr Mi. 

 r, .V. . ^ '• '^^h'ting took a Brow., 



Creeper^h^ P^|,the roof of the^^ouse " 



Brief Shore Bird Notes. 



I BY JOHN C. CAHOON. 



Our early flight of adult Sanderlings, Ked- 

 breasted Snipe, Eed-breasted Sandpipers and 

 Black-bellied Plovers occurred at about the 

 same time as the last season's one, but was 

 very light ; in fact the absence of all kinds of 

 shore birds has been very noticeable. The 

 south-east storms of the last two weeks have 

 increased the few scattering Black-bellied Plov- 

 I ersinto several good-sized flocks, mostly young, 

 also several small bunches of Great Yellow-legs 

 and Golden Plovers. 



Pectoral and Bonaparte's Sandpiper have not 

 put in an appearance as yet. A few young 

 Sanderling just arriving, also young Ked- 

 backed Sandpipers. I have never seen an 

 adult Red-backed Sandpiper in the fall. 



Yesterday I saw several large flocks of Black- 

 bellied Plover on the beach at high tide. 



At present writing to-day, it has been stormy 

 with thick fog and the number of shore birds is 

 greatly increased. I saw first Black Tern 

 (young) of the season to-night, some dozen in 

 number. 



Monomoy Island, Cape Cod, Aug. 25, 1887. 



O & O. XII. Oot. 1887 P. / /"O 



