58 
General Motes. 
The above described nest and eggs were taken in the locality where Mr. 
Ridgway found the birds last year (see this Bulletin, Vol. IV, p. 238). 
They are more or less common in all suitable places, probably a dozen 
pairs breeding in this and the adjoining meadows. 
Since writing the above, two fully fledged young birds have been taken 
(June 6) in the same place. The birds have been also seen and heard 
singing at Ball’s Cross Roads in Virginia, about two miles nearer the 
District than the other locality. Besides the characteristic note of tee-wick , 
they have quite a song, which may fairly be represented by the syllables 
sis-r-r-rit-srit-srit, with the accent on the first and last parts. This song 
is often uttered while the bird takes a short flight upward ; it then drops 
down again into the tangled weeds and grasses where it is almost impossi- 
ble to follow it. — Pierre Louis Jouy, Washington, D.C. 
The Lark Finch on Long Island, N. Y. — On August 20, 1879, I 
took a specimen of Ckondestes grammica at Layville, Long Island, the 
first, I believe, for this State. Strange to say, it was shot in a low, wet 
salt-meadow. Most of the other eastern specimens have also been taken 
near the coast. — Charles Earle. New York City. 
The Golden Eagle in New Brunswick. — When out Snipe shooting 
October 16 (1880), a big Blue Heron flew up and almost immediately 
dropped to the ground. Instantly a large bird came like a meteor and 
struck the Heron with full force and in their excitement I got a fine spec- 
imen of the Golden Eagle ( Aquila chrysaetus) , a species not often occur- 
ingwith us. — George A. Boardman, Milltown , N B. 
The Bald Eagle ( Haliaetus leucocephalus) as a Hunter. — In vieAv 
of the rather unenviable reputation that the Bald Eagle has obtained at 
the hands of most of the later ornithological writers,* the following ex- 
tracts from a letter from Mr. John W. Baker of Brooklyn. N. Y., may be 
of interest. His observations were made during the winter and spring of 
1879 Fruit Cove on the St. John's River, in Florida, fifteen or twenty 
miles south of Jacksonville. 
“The particular Eagle of which I write (for I am sure it was always the 
same bird) usually made two trips daily to the river in front of the house 
where I lived, once in the morning, and again towards evening. I think 
it safe to assert that he did not miss a day during my entire stay of some 
four or five months, giving me, therefore, ample opportunity of noting 
the manner in which he secured his prey. 
“ As soon as he reached the river he invariably alighted on the topmost 
branch of a tree in the immediate neighborhood of where the largest body 
of Coots [ Fulica americana\ was feeding, where he sat some minutes, 
apparently resting and preparing himself for battle. At the first sight of 
* See, however, Vol. V, p. 57, of this Bulletin, where its habits at Cobb’s Island, Va., 
as described by Mr. Wm. Brewster, seem to agree very closely with Mr. Baker’s ob- 
servations. 
