The above described nest and eggs were taken in the locality where Mr. Ridgway found the birds last year (see this Bulletin, Vol. IV, p. 238). They are more or less common in all suitable places, probably a dozen pairs breeding in this and the adjoining meadows.

Since writing the above, two fully fledged young birds have been taken (June 6) in the same place. The birds have been also seen and heard singing at Ball's Cross Roads in Virginia, about two miles nearer the District than the other locality. Besides the characteristic note of tee-wick, they have quite a song, which may fairly be represented by the syllables sis-r-r-rit-srit-srit, with the accent on the first and last parts. This song

is often uttered while the bird takes a short flight upward; it then drops down again into the tangled weeds and grasses where it is almost impossible to follow it. - PIERRE LOUIS JOUY, Washington, D.C.

THE LARK FINCH ON LONG ISLAND, N. Y. — On August 20, 1879, I took a specimen of Chondestes grammica at Layville, Long Island, the first, I believe, for this State. Strange to say, it was shot in a low, wet salt-meadow. Most of the other eastern specimens have also been taken near the coast. CHARLES EARLE, New York City.

THE GOLDEN EAGLE IN NEW BRUNSWICK.- When out Snipe shooting October 16 (1880), a big Blue Heron flew up and almost immediately dropped to the ground. Instantly a large bird came like a meteor and struck the Heron with full force and in their excitement I got a fine specimen of the Golden Eagle (Aquila chrysaëtus), a species not often occuring with us.- - GEORGE A. BOARDMAN, Milltown, N. B.

THE BALD EAGLE (Haliaëtus leucocephalus) AS A HUNTER. In view of the rather unenviable reputation that the Bald Eagle has obtained at the hands of most of the later ornithological writers,* the following extracts from a letter from Mr. John W. Baker of Brooklyn, N. Y., may be of interest. His observations were made during the winter and spring of 1879 at Fruit Cove on the St. John's River, in Florida, fifteen or twenty miles south of Jacksonville.

"The particular Eagle of which I write (for I am sure it was always the same bird) usually made two trips daily to the river in front of the house where I lived, once in the morning, and again towards evening. I think it safe to assert that he did not miss a day during my entire stay of some four or five months, giving me, therefore, ample opportunity of noting the manner in which he secured his prey.

"As soon as he reached the river he invariably alighted on the topmost. branch of a tree in the immediate neighborhood of where the largest body of Coots [Fulica americana] was feeding, where he sat some minutes, apparently resting and preparing himself for battle. At the first sight of

* See, however, Vol. V, p. 57, of this Bulletin, where its habits at Cobb's Island, Va., as described by Mr. Wm. Brewster, seem to agree very closely with Mr. Baker's observations.

the Eagle the Coots all huddled together, remaining so during his rest, swimming about aimlessly and casting uneasy glances up in the direction of their enemy. The moment the Eagle lifted himself from his perch, the Coots seemed to press towards a common centre until they were packed so closely together that they had the appearance of a large black mantle upon the water; they remained in this position until the Eagle made his first swoop, when they arose as one bird, making a great noise with their wings, and disturbance with their feet which continued to touch the water for the first fifty or one hundred feet of their flight. This seemed to disconcert the Eagle who would rise in the air only to renew his attack with great vigor.

"These maneuvres were kept up, the Eagle repeating his attack with marvelous rapidity, until, in the excitement and hurry of flight, three or four Coots got separated from the main body; this circumstance the Eagle was quick to discover and take advantage of; it was now easy work to single out his victim, but usually long and hard to finally secure it. I have never seen him leave the field of battle, however, without a trophy of his prowess, though I have seen him so baffled in his first attempts to separate the birds, that he was compelled to seek his tree again to rest.

"On one occasion, after separating his bird from the flock, he spent some minutes in its capture · - the Coot eluding him by diving; this frequent rebuff seemed to provoke the Eagle to such an extent that he finally followed it under the water- remaining some seconds - so long, indeed, that I thought him drowned; he finally appeared, however, with the bird in his talons, but so weak and exhausted that he could scarcely raise himself above the water, and for the first thirty or forty yards of his flight his wings broke the surface of the water; very slowly he made his way to the nearest tree, where he alighted, on the lowest limb, to recover his spent strength.

One more incident: I had crept up on a small batch of Coots and discharged one barrel of my gun at them, killing one, and was about to start out for a boat to pick it up, when I was startled by an Eagle swooping down upon my dead bird; he had it in his talons before I could get my gun to shoulder, but I quickly discharged the contents of the other barrel at him, which had the effect of making him drop my bird and go screaming away; thinking he might return, I began to reload my gun, and had barely finished one barrel, when, sure enough, he made another attempt to steal my game; in my haste I fired before he was within range, or I might have added him to my bag. I got my Coot.

I have also seen him chase the Fish Hawk, and force him to drop his fish which he immediately secured for himself.

This, I think, will cover the extent of my own observations, though I am credibly informed that he has been seen to capture squirrels, rabbits, and even chickens."

This last statement is confirmed by an account given me last spring by a resident in Nassau Co., Florida, on the St. Mary's River, who complain

ed of the Eagles' carrying off poultry and young pigs, boldly venturing near the houses for the purpose.-CHARLES F. BATCHELDER, Cambridge, Mass.

BREEDING OF THE WILD PIGEON IN CONFINEMENT.- Of late years the Wild Pigeon has been trapped and kept in confinement for use in trapshooting to a considerable extent, but instances of these captives having bred and raised their young is, I believe, quite unusual.

The following "clipping" from the Hartford, Conn., "Courant" of August 5, 1880, on this subject, credited to the New Haven "Palladium,” which has kindly been sent me by Mr. J. A. Stannis, may be worthy of

note :

"Sherman Potter, the veteran pigeon shooter of Fair Haven, has a pair of wild pigeons which he has trained in the capacity of stool pigeons and flights. This season, to the surprise of Potter and everyone else, they' hatched one young one, which has grown to full size, and recently hatched another which is now two-thirds grown. This is an unusual occurrence for wild pigeons to raise their young in captivity. Potter is delighted, and is about to enter into the business of raising these birds on a grand scale, as they find a ready market at $5 apiece in Fair Haven, to be used as stool pigeons and flights."- Ruthven DEANE, Chicago, Ill.

EVIDENCE OF THE FORMER EXISTENCE OF THE WILD TURKEY AT MOUNT DESERT Island, MAINE.-Last summer (August 14, 1880), while searching in an old Indian shell-heap on the east side of Mount Desert Island, Maine, I found a portion of the tarsus of a Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo). This is interesting as showing the former range of this bird, which is now extinct in New England.

In Jeffries Wyman's account of the Indian shell-heaps of New England, he does not mention finding the bones of the Wild Turkey farther north than Eagle Hill in Ipswich, Massachusetts.-C. W. ToWNSEND, Boston, Mass.

RECENT Occurrence of Baird's Sandpiper (Tringa bairdi) IN MAINE. So far as I am aware, we have but four recorded instances * of the capture of this Sandpiper in New England, but the following facts will seem to indicate that in certain localities, at least, it may be something more than a mere accidental visitor. On the evening of Sept. 4, 1880, while returning from a trip up Lake Umbagog (Oxford Co., Maine), and just as we were entering the mouth of Cambridge River, the guide called my attention to a flock of small Waders sitting on a mud-flat. I made out two of the number to be Ring-necked Plovers, but in the fading light it was difficult to distinguish colors, and as the remaining six looked unfamiliar I picked out one that stood a little apart and shot it. The others disap

*Long Island, Boston Harbor, Aug. 27, 1870. Brewster, Am. Nat., VI, May, 1872, 306.- Lake Umbagog, Upton, Maine, Sept. 1, 1875. Brewster, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, I, April, 1876, 19.-Scarborough Beach, Maine, Sept. 9, 1875. Brown, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, II, January, 1877, 28.- Swampscott, Mass., Aug. 27, 1876. Brewer, Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, III, July, 1878, 140.

peared in the gloom and I picked up a specimen of Tringa bairdi. Early the next morning I again visited the spot but there were only six Ringnecks on the flat. On a neighboring mud-bar, however, I shortly found two Baird's Sandpipers feeding in company with an Ereunetes and all three were quickly secured. The Baird's Sandpipers proved to be a male and female, both birds of the year. They were so fat that their skins were preserved with the greatest difficulty. Whether they represented a part of the flock seen the evening before can of course only be a matter of conjecture. I have, however, good reasons for suspecting that the Baird's Sandpiper regularly occurs at Umbagog in small numbers during the autumnal migration. In view of its known distribution in the West it would be more likely to be found on interior ponds and marshes than along our sea-coast, where it is apparently a very rare species.

The specimens above mentioned were very tame and I watched them for some time before disturbing them. Their motions were slow and sedate and their attitudes crouching. They kept up a low conversational twitter while feeding, and when flushed, flew in that swift, erratic way characteristic of most of the smaller Waders. The peculiar coloring of the upper parts gave them a striped appearance which should serve to distinguish them from any other eastern Sandpiper except Tryngites rufescens WILLIAM BREWSTER, Cambridge, Mass.

OCCURRENCE OF BAIRD'S SANDPIPER (Tringa bairdi) ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE COAST. While out on the marsh at Rye Beach, N. H., August 26, my attention was called by my companion to a "Large Peep,” as he called it. Upon shooting the bird we found it to be a Tringa bairdi. The same afternoon I obtained another specimen of this bird which was running along the beach in company with a large flock of Peeps. Both birds were very tame and allowed a quite near approach. This is the first record of this bird for New Hampshire. HENRY M. SPELMAN, Cambridge, Mass.

NOTE ON TRYNGITES RUFESCENS IN TEXAS. The Buff-breasted Sandpiper is mentioned by Mr. Dresser and Dr. Merrill as occurring on the Rio Grande in Texas, but Mr. Sennett and Mr. McCauley did not note it. Professor Snow calls it rare in Kansas, and Dr. Coues did not meet with it in Dakota while with the Northern Boundary Survey. My experience is that it is a bird whose occurrence is not to be relied upon in Cooke County, Texas.

On April 23, 1877, I saw a flock here and noted no more until April 29, 1880, when I saw two or three flocks of some half-dozen each, near Gainsville. Not having my gun, I returned next day and scoured the same locality without finding a single Tryngites. Thinking they were certainly on the large prairie west of Gainesville, I rode over that for half a day without seeing a Buff-breast, and gave up the search. On May 3, in riding through the same prairie where I saw the species in question, I came upon a flock of seven and, as before, was without my gun. I procured one and shot four with the first barrel and one with the second; following the remaining two I secured them, and no more have been seen since.

I noted a habit of strutting and similar maneuvering in these birds which I have never seen in Bartram's Tattler. My attention was first attracted by the white lining of the wing as the bird lay on one side stretching the wing straight up in the air; on approaching nearer I saw several others near by acting in the same ludicrous manner. One would raise the feathers and strut up to another as though they were going to fight, and I think they did sometimes strike at each other as game cocks do. Another would run up to one of its companions and stand on tip-toe with both wings raised high in the air as if challenging a contest; after standing still for an instant it would then drop its wings and go to feeding as quietly as before. I regretted that I had such a limited opportunity for making notes upon this truly interesting species.

Dr. Merrill says that the same dates and localities apply to T. rufescens as to Actiturus bartramius. The latter, however, arrives in Cooke County as early as March 27, which is about four weeks earlier than I have noted the Buff-breasts. Both species are very tame and mingle freely together while feeding.

Mr. A. Hall, of East Rockport, Ohio, informs me that he met with a small flock of these birds in riding over the prairies in Nebraska, May 18, 1880, associated with A. bartramius. They were very tame, allowing so near an approach that they might have been easily killed with stones. The several specimens obtained were all 'females. He adds that he observed no strutting or fighting, such as I had described to him as seen by me in Texas. — G. H. RAGSDALE, Gainesville, Texas.

A SECOND MASSACHUSETTS SPECIMEN OF THE CLAPPER RAIL (Rallus longirostris). Mr. Arthur Smith has shown me a fine specimen of the Clapper Rail which he shot late in October, 1879, at Gurnet Point, Plymouth, Massachusetts. It is a dark colored example in full fall plumage. It was killed on a salt marsh where another large Rail supposed to be of the same species was seen at the same time. After the expunging of the old-time records the Clapper Rail was first reinstated as a bird of Massachusetts by Mr. H. A. Purdie in this Bulletin for January, 1877. A year later Dr. Brewer published* a notice of what would at first reading seem to be a second specimen, for no reference is made to Mr. Purdie's previous record and the date of capture is given as May, 1876; but upon looking up the bird in the "New England Collection of the Boston Society I find it to be the same as that upon which Mr. Purdie based his data.

Oddly enough Dr. Brewer apparently makes a similar blunder with Rallus elegans when he gives a specimen (1. c.) as "shot in Nahant in the spring of 1876," with the remark that there is no previous record for New England, except West Haven, Conn." The latter statement is obviously incorrect, for the presence of the King Rail in Massachusetts had been made known by Mr. Purdiet a year previously, and, if I am not

*"Notes on certain species of New England Birds with Additions to his Catalogue of the Birds of New England. By T. M. Brewer." Proc. of the Boston Soc. of Nat. Hist., Vol. XIX, Feb. 6, 1878.

+ Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. II, Jan., 1877, p. 22.