General Notes. 199 



was finally shot, March 4, 1878, on Coskata Pond, by Mr. F. P. Chad- 

 wick, and by him presented to Mr. Sweet. The bird is apparently in 

 nearly perfect plumage, with the otherwise pure white only partially 

 obscured by a plumbeous wash upon the top and sides of the head, and 

 for a short space on the neck behind. Its weight was sixteen pounds. 

 The sex was not ascertained. Although this species is given in many of 

 the local lists as of occasional occurrence during the migrations, there 

 seems to be no previous record of its actual capture in Massachusetts. 



At the time of the first settlement of the country, according to various 

 early writers, a Swan — presumably C. americanus — was common along 

 the Merrimack Kiver and in sume other parts of the State. — William 

 Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



Capture of a Fifth Specimen of the "White-throated Warbler 

 (Helminthophaga leucobronchialis). — I am indebted to Mr. E. I. Shores 

 for the opportunity of examining a specimen of the White-throated 

 Warbler, which was taken by him at Suffield, Conn., July 3, 1875. It is 

 an adult male in very worn plumage. In every essential particular it 

 agrees well with my type of the species, though exhibiting certain peculi- 

 arities of coloration not found in any of the three specimens which I have 

 previously examined. These differences are such as might be expected to 

 occur in a series sufficiently large to present the range of individual 

 variation, and do not tend to establish any closer connection with either 

 of the allied species. The most marked departure from the type is pre- 

 sented by the coloration of the under parts. The entire pectoral region is 

 washed with pale yellow, which extends down along the sides of the abdo- 

 men nearly to the tail. This coloring proves upon examination to be a 

 merely superficial tipping to the feathers. In a good series of H. chrysop- 

 tera before me several specimens occur which are marked in a nearly 

 similar manner, though in none of them does the yellow wash extend so 

 far down upon the sides. With this latter species it seems to be a purely 

 individual phase of coloration, dependent neither upon age nor season. 

 Several young males in newdy completed autumnal dress do not show the 

 slightest trace of its presence, while a young female in fall plumage is 

 quite distinctly tinged across the breast. The spring specimens most 

 strongly marked are all apparently very adult birds. 



Another point of difference, scarcely td be expected when the unusual 

 amount of yellow beneath is taken in consideration, is found in the 

 restricted area of the yellow marking upon the wing-coverts. In the 

 type specimen the wing-bands are nearly confluent, and present the 

 appearance of a single broad yellow band upon the wing, while in Mr. 

 Shores's specimen they are widely separated. This, however, seems to be 

 mainly due to the imperfect condition of the plumage, whereby the darker 

 bases of many of the greater coverts are exposed. No further differences 

 worthy of note occur, and the salient characters of white cheeks and eye- 

 lids, narrow restricted black line through the eye, etc., are all strongly 



