Notes on the Summer Birds of Berkshire County, Massachusetts.— I 
spent the week of June 17-22, 1902, in Williamstown and vicinity with 
Mr. Louis Agassiz Shaw, making some observations perhaps of value to 
those interested in the Berkshire County avifauna. My notes are supple- 
mented by the notes of Messrs. Francis G. and Maurice C. Blake who 
were residents of Williamstown during the years 1900 and 1901. 
The weather while we were there was cool and rainy days alternated 
with cloudless ones. 
Bartramia longicauda. Five pairs or so were found evidently breeding 
on Northwest Hill, and two pairs on the Vermont (Pownal) line. Four 
specimens were taken (three males and one female), all adults, but with 
the sexual organs little enlarged. They were in the upland meadows in 
fairly tall grass (eight inches), and when flushed lit on barns, fences or 
trees. On the 21st, a rainy day, they were heard not only to utter their 
common call note, but a prolonged wind-like whistle — -sounding like an 
eolian harp — which can best be represented thus: phue-phue-phue- phue 
phue phue, phue-phue-phue , uttered as they sailed like hawks above the 
meadows, or while perching. The Messrs. Blake tell me they saw four on 
June 19, 1900, and two June 15, 1901, near Stone Hill. In the first instance 
they were heard ‘ singing.’ Although breeding in the Western States 
in May and early June, I believe they do not begin to nest in Massachu- 
setts until after the middle of June. 
Auk, XIX, Oct., 1602 , p. . 
Massachusetts Breeding Dates for Bartramia longicauda. — For the 
last eight years I have had the pleasure of watching some six to eight 
pairs of Bartramian Sandpipers on the sheep fields of Marthas Vineyard, 
the remnant of what was formerly not an uncommon breeder there. As 
a result, I have the following personal breeding records : 
June 3, 1894. Nest with four eggs, incubation one third advanced. 
June 4, 1894. Nest with four young, just hatched and running. 
May 25, 1895. Nest with four eggs, incubation commenced. 
May 25, 1895. Nest with broken shells, destroyed probably by a Crow. 
May 30, 1896. Nest with four eggs, incubation one fourth advanced. 
May 25, 1900. Nest with four eggs, incubation commenced. 
Mr. Mackay has recorded a nest of three eggs found on Tuckernuck 
Island on June 22, 1896 (Auk, April, 1897, p. 229), but the date and num- 
ber of eggs would appear to me to indicate a second laying, the first 
having probably been destroyed. 
I am induced to give these records because Mr. Howe has stated in his 
notes on these birds made at Williamstown, Mass. (Auk, Oct. 1902, p. 
404), that the birds did not probably breed in Massachusetts until after 
the middle of June. This may be true in Berkshire County, but is cer- 
tainly not true in Massachusetts as a whole. The average summer tem- 
perature at Marthas Vineyard is 67^° and at Williamstown about 65°, but 
in winter the range is from 32 0 at the former to 22 0 at the latter. This 
causes an earlier spring at Marthas Vineyard and will account for some 
difference in nesting dates, though I should hardly expect to find it so 
much as three weeks. — Owen Durfee, Fall River, Mass. 
Aok, XX, Jan., 1903 , p p.(>S- 66 - 
/ foy 
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