AND OOLOGIST 
71 
November, 1881.] 
in they found him lying on the bed; he un¬ 
covered his side, and showed them where 
the bullet had entered ; a piece of the fore¬ 
head was blown off, and had exposed the 
brains, without having bled much. He 
begged they would take his rifle and blow 
out his brains, and he would give them all 
the money he had in his trunk. He often 
said, ‘I am no coward ; but I am so strong, 
so hard to die.’ 
“ He begged the servant not to be afraid 
of him for that he would not hurt hini. He 
expired in about two hours, just as the sun 
rose above the trees. He lies buried close 
by the common path, with a few loose rails 
throAvn over his grave. I gave Grinder mon¬ 
ey to put a post fence round it to shelter it 
from the hogs and from the wolves; and he 
gave me his written promise he would do it. 
“ I left this place in a very melancholy 
mood, which was not much allayed by the 
prospect of the gloomy and savage wilder¬ 
ness which I was just entering alone.” 
Notes from Maine, 
In the Ornithologist for September I 
noticed an article by M. H., from Camden, 
entitled, “Notes from Maine.” From in¬ 
dications in the article I am led to believe 
that M. H. lives in the very near vicinity 
of Bangor, and hence his observations 
would be largely made in this portion of 
our State. As several statements therein 
made do not accord with the obseivations 
of myself, or of other field workers in this 
vicinity, I would like to present a few notes 
on points mentioned. 
M. H. says: “For ten years at least I 
have not seen a common House Wren, al¬ 
though formerly very abundant. I can find 
no one who remembers havirg seen one for 
years.” House Wrens built in aliouse pro¬ 
vided for their accommodation in my gar 
den for a series of years, to, and including 
1879, in which year I took the nest and 
eggs, and removed the house. Had I not 
taken away their abiding place I should ex¬ 
pect them to still resort to their old home. 
This case was not exceptional, as I knew 
of other pairs breeding in different parts of 
the city at the same time, and my personal 
observations are of course limited. 
The House Sparrow, European, he says, 
“has visited us in winter for the last two 
years, but have never seen any after March. 
They have come and gone at about the 
same dates as the Snow Bunting ” I would 
mention that this year they did not disap¬ 
pear in March. I have seen them contin¬ 
ually thro'ugh the past summer, and have 
seen them feeding their young on the streets 
of our city—showing they bred here the 
past season. To-day, October i8th, I saw 
a flock of a dozen or more. 
Hawks, in my opinion, are not so un¬ 
common as might be inferred from M. H’s 
remarks. Undoubtedly they are more nu¬ 
merous in other localities, and their nests 
are not often met with here—I found but 
one the past season, exclusive of Fish 
Hawks’, of which I took several. This 
mav probably be explained by the fact that 
suitable localities for breeding are so nu¬ 
merous that the chances for finding their 
nests are correspondingly small. 
Nearly every time I am out gunning, par¬ 
ticularly in the fall, I see one or more, and 
during the past year I have obtained seven 
different species in this immediate vicinity, 
viz: Sparrow, Pigeon, Marsh, Sharp-shinned, 
Red-shouldered, Fish, and Goshawk. 
Sandpipers are frequently seen to dive 
and swim under water as described by M. 
H. I have often seen it and have had oth¬ 
ers speak of being witnesses of their nat¬ 
atorial abilities. The past summer I saw 
a young Spotted Sandpiper—in the down— 
on being chased by a dog take to the water 
and keep away from its pursuer by div¬ 
ing and swimming under water, using its 
wings for propellers. This was kept up for 
fully fifteen minutes, till the little swimmer 
had baffled Ids pursuer. 
Blue-birds are quite common with us at 
present, having, as M H. says, increased in 
numbers of late years. Thoreau, in “Maine 
Woods,” mentions it as a remarkable fact 
that while the Blue-bird is common in most 
jiarts of Maine, it is unknown in the vicini 
ty of Bangor. This, however, is no longer 
true .—Harry Merrill, Bangor, Maine. 
