General Notes. 
185 
course of starvation, and then submitted the unfortunate kitten again. 
This time her reception was very different. At sight of her he manifested 
great excitement, and in a very few minutes left his perch with a jump and 
a flop, and seized the poor beast in his talons. He struck her very nicely, 
pinning fore paws and head together with one foot, the hind paws together 
with the other, thus preventing the slightest resistance. My remorse at 
this stage of the proceedings was somewhat alleviated by the fact that the 
kitten did not even quiver, having apparently been instantly killed by the 
force of the blow. However, the Eagle at once put an end to what little 
life may have been left by breaking her spine with his beak. He thereupon 
tore a hole in her abdomen, and cast the intestines daintily aside. The 
contents of the stomach were examined and, 'with the exception of a single 
tid-bit which appeared. to be a piece of bread, rejected. The rest of the 
body was then rapidly devoured. On the following morning a full-grown 
tom-cat was turned loose in the cage. The Eagle attacked him several 
times but was valiantly repelled, and up to the end of the third day, when 
he made his escape, Thomas remained master of the situation. Dissatis- 
fied with this experiment, my friend subsequently introduced the cat in a 
half-stunned condition, and after getting well scratched the Eagle succeeded 
in overcoming him. — Nathan Clifford Brown. Portland , Maine. 
Note on Mareca Americana. — I shot at Wayland, Mass., October 1, 
1881, a young male Widgeon ( Mareca americana'). It was flying in com- 
pany with a flock of twelve others, apparently of the same species. — A. 
Thorndike, Brookline , Mass. 
Destruction of Birds by the Cold Wave of May 2ist and 22nd. 
— It seems worthy of note that, judging from indications in this vicinity, 
the destruction of bird life bv the recent cold wave must have been very 
considerable. 
On the morning of May 2ist, a specimen of He l m in th op h il a peregrina 
was picked up so nearly chilled to death that it died shortly afterwards. 
The same was also true of a specimen of Dendroeca pennsylvanica. On 
the morning of Maj r 22nd, three other specimens of the following species 
were picked up here which had apparently died of cold : Dendroeca macu- 
losa , Myiodioctes pusillus, and Empidonax minimus. 
These facts suggest that the abundance of bird life may, to a considerable 
extent, be influenced by sudden extreme changes of temperature, as well 
as by heavy gales. — F. FI. King, River Falls. Wis., May 24, 1882. 
A “Tidal Wave” of Birds in Washington. — In the twenty-five 
years during which I have paid more or less attention to birds hereabouts 
I have never seen anything like the “wave” that rolled up in the second 
and third weeks of May of this year. The highest spring “season” is 
usually the month from April 20 to May 20, at which latter date the tide 
has usually ebbed equably from its greatest height at the middle of May. 
This year the birds seemed to be held back by the cold and wet, and such 
