Four or five times during an hour and a half the birds on the telegraph wires rose in a body, with those drinking at the brook, while the flock from the pasture hurriedly crossed the intervening fields to join them. For a moment the very air seemed full of Swallows, then rising higher, they separated into smaller flocks, turning back and forth, meeting again, describing curious figures as smoothly and easily as if going through a long-practiced drill. After a few minutes, they either returned, a few at a time, to their former perches, or gradually scattered over the fields and woods and in a little while came streaming back, a long river of Swallows, to alight once more. As the morning advanced their numbers gradually diminished, and at 3 p. m. about thirty remained. For three or four days after that these Swallows were present in great numbers, continuing their drill, after which I noticed no more than usual. — Is.^BEi.LA McC. Lemmon, Eyigleujood , N.J. An Aerial Battle On September 24, 1898, I witnessed a most vigorous and spirited fight between a Sparrow Hawk and a female Sharp- shinned Hawk. Each seemed equally the aggressor and fought after its own peculiar method of hunting, the Sparrow Hawk al- ways endeavoring to rise high above the other and then dash down falcon-like on the back of its antagonist, a manoeuver which the other usually forestalled b- turn- ing on its back and striking upwards viciously, though once or twice I fancied that the Sparrow Hawk struck her pretty severely before she was able to turn. The Sharji-shirmed Hawk attacked with a horizontal flight, sometimes with a side movement, but oftener straight ahead, and, to my surprise, appeared to have the ad- vantage when Hying against tlie wind, in spite of its opponent's more compact iiuilil and stitfer wing feathers. The two fought back and forth over the same ground for ten minutes or more, each endeavoring to gain the advantage by keeping to the winthvard, but continuallv beaten back by the gale. The Sp;ini> Hawk touglit in silence, while the other uttered sharp, petu- lant shrieks from time to time. — W. E. Cram, Hampton Falls, N. H. Note on the Warbling Vireo An early morning visit to Rock Island, in the Mississippi river at Moline, Illinois, for the purpose of becoming more familiar with the Warbling Vireo — the bird, its song. Its nest, its habits — revealed a very pretty bit of bird -ways. Seated on the ground, in a convenient place for watching the Vireo, which was on the nest, we were soon attracted by a VIreo's song. Search for the singer failed to find it, until we noted that the bird on the nest seemed to be singing. Then, as we watched, over and over again the bird was seen to lift up its head and pour out the long, rich warble — a most delicious sight and sound. Are such ways usual amongst birds, or did we chance to see and hear an un- usual thing ? — Amanda Elliott, Moline. Illinois. The Bird Rock Group I Hfe Frontispiece ) One of the objects of the writer's trip to Bird Rock in July, 1898, was to secure material to be used in the representation of the interesting phase of bird -life the Rock so well typifies, in the American Museum of Natural History. This object has now been happily accomplished through the skill and talents of Mr. H. C. Dens- low, of the Museum's taxidermic staflf, and the Bird Rock group is considered to be one of the most successful, as well as most ambitious attempts, to reproduce the haunts of birds. — F. M. C. The Eighteenth Congress of the American Ornithologists' Union riu- public sessions of the A. O. l'. will be held November 12-14 in the American Museum of Natural History, New York city. The Second Annual Audubon Con- ference will also occur at the same place (lurilii; the >ame week.
