General Notes. 
63 
1883.] 
many others of the same species they were found on an “ice-pond” a few 
miles north of the Garden. The three secured were all killed at one shot. 
Mr. Thompson also writes that Mr. Dury has a fourth example which was 
taken on the Little Miami River about Oct. 15, 1882. Such dates and lo- 
cality would both appear to be exceptional. — Elliott Coues, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 
Polygamy among . Oscines. — A letter received from Prof. F. E. L. 
Beal, of the Iowa Agricultural College, gives some interesting data upon 
this subject, in the cases of Agelcetis fihcenicetis and Sialia sialis. Having 
often been struck with the numerical preponderance of female Marsh 
Blackbirds, Professor Beal made in the spring of 1881 special examination 
of a small piece of swamp in which he always found one male and three 
to seven females. For two weeks, during which the place was carefully 
watched, only one other male made his appearance upon the scene, and he 
was at once attacked and routed by the one in charge of the premises. 
This past spring Professor Beal found one male and two females domiciled 
on a small prairie slough. Both nests were discovered, each containing 
four eggs, and the course of events was watched until the young were 
fledged — the arrangement remaining always the same. 
The case of the Bluebird is given on hearsay, but seems perfectly authen- 
tic. A trio of these birds occupied two niches in the chimneys of the gas 
works at the college there, and raised two broods. The male paid equal 
attention to both females, often passing directly from one nest to the other, 
and was seen in congress with each of the females in the .course of a few 
minutes. — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 
The Prescient Power in Birds. — I wish to take friendly issue with 
Mr. Henshaw over one of the statements made in his recent article “On 
the Decrease of Birds.” Alluding to the extermination of Purple Martins 
one season at Cambridge, soon after their arrival, Mr. Henshaw says * in 
substance that facts of this sort sufficiently refute the superstition that 
birds are able to foretell the weather. I do not believe that a majority of 
observers are with him in that opinion. Because the Martins apparently 
missed it on the occasion cited, does it follow that they are wholly without 
that “mysterious faculty” which enables them to avoid tempestuous 
weather, if they wish to? And granting that this occurrence does prove 
the Martins incapable of taking an anticipative view of the weather, I 
refuse to admit that all migratory species, or even a majority of them, are 
similarly lacking. My own field of experience has gradually confirmed 
me in the belief f that at least many of our birds are able, by a faculty 
which most emphatically is “mysterious,” to foresee a coming storm 
hours before any signs of such a storm are visible to human eyes. 
Let me instance a circumstance bearing upon this matter: Oct. 26, 
*Bull., Vol. VI, No. 4, p. 193, foot-note. 
t So eminent an authority as Mr. J. A. Allen has reached the same conclusion. See 
“Century Magazine,” Oct., 1881, p. 938. 
