
Singular behavior of Cy. cristata [Cyanura cristata]
MASS. (Middlesex Co.) [Middlesex County, Massachusetts]
Last Paserella iliaca  [Passerella iliaca] D. Auduboni [Dendroica auduboni]
1876.
Thursday
Nov. 16 [November 16, 1876] A lovely day and especially welcome after
the long period of rain which we had
had. Spent the forenoon on "the farm"
looking for small birds but saw nothing
of especial interest. Shot four or five
specimens, all common. Saw Turdus
migratorius in small flocks; Colaptes
auratus, a few; Junco hyemalis one
flock; Pas. iliaca [Passerella iliaca] a single bird, the
last of the season; Regulus satrapa
very abundant; Certhia Am. [Certhia americana] four or five;
and Chry. tristis [Chrysomitris tristis]. A large flock of
Cy. cristata [Cyanura cristata] acted in a very remarkable
manner. About a dozen or fifteen
were sitting in a clump of low alders
along a brook and at some distance
from the woods. As I came up
I noticed first that none of them 
moved but all sat perfectly motionless
in the warm rays of the sun.
Finally I approached within ten
yards of them and [delete]with[/delete] in full
view and after looking at them a
few moments I fired four squib
charges at them, killing two, before
any of them would move. Finally
they commenced screaming at me
and one imitated the whistle of B. lineatus [Buteo lineatus] 
in vociferous accents. At length they
seemed to take a sudden alarm and
flew off hastily to the nearest woods
scattering as they went. I never saw
anything like it before, and can only
account by the supposition that they
were N. [northern] birds who were unused to man.
They are very abundant just now.
[margin] Abbott M. Fraser shot a young [male] D. Auduboni [Dendroica auduboni] in Watertown this morning. I have examined the specimen & find it quite typical (vide Bull. N.O.C. [Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club January 1877.)