General Notes. 59 



One of the above males is now in the collection of Mr. W. Brewster, 

 and the other is in my own cabinet; the female is in the collection of 

 Mr. Greene Smith of Peterboro', N. Y. — Ruthven Deane, Cambridge, 

 Mass. 



Some Light on the History of a Rare Bird. — In the Bulletin 

 for January, 1878, I mentioned the fact that a third specimen of the 

 White-throated Warbler (Helminlhophaf/a lew ohronchi alls, Brewster) had 

 been found in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 

 Sciences. In the paper I stated that there was no label attached to the 

 bird, designating its species, sex, or the locality where it was procured ; 

 but that on the bottom of its stand was written, "J. C, 20 Oct., 18G2," 

 and also what I made out to be, " Not from Bell," which was much 

 blurred. Further, the history of the specimen was involved in obscurity. 



I wrote to Mr. N. T. Lawrence of New York, concerning the bird, and 

 shortly afterwards, having called on Mr. Bell, the well-known ornitholo- 

 gist, Mr. Lawrence wrote me as follows : — 



"I asked Mr. Roll if he remembered at any time procuring a specimen of 

 E. chrysoptera which diifered in any way from the normal specimens. He 

 said that when his attention was called to your last article in the Bulletin, he 

 recalled the fact that somewhere about 1832, in the spring of that year, at 

 Rockland, X. Y., he shot, as he supposed, a young male Golden- wing, but at 

 the time remarked to his brother, who was collecting with him, that the bird 

 was highly plumaged, but lacked the black of the throat, hence he took it to be 

 a young male. His attention was first attracted to the bird by a note he had 

 never heard before, and one of Bell's specialties in his younger days was his accu- 

 racy in determining different species by their notes. He also said he kept the 

 specimen a long time, thinking it an unusual form of the Golden-wing, and 

 finally sold it to a man in Philadelphia ; therefore, I think in all probability 

 the bird you found at the Academy is the identical one Bell procured over forty 

 years ago. He said he intended to question his brother the next time he saw 

 him, in regard to it ; so if I hear anything more on the subject I will let you 

 know." 



From the above extract from Mr. Lawrence's letter, it seems there is 

 strong reason for believing that the bird discovered in the Academy's 

 collection is the self-same one shot by Bell at Rockland, N. Y., in 1832 ; 

 and on the almost obliterated words, " Not from Bell," or, as Mr. George 

 N. Lawrence says might be, " Note from Bell," hung the history of the 

 specimen. The sentence, "J. C., 20 Oct., 1862," is, I think, explainable. 

 Mr. Cassin. having charge of the Academy's ornithological collections, 

 like Mr. Bell supposed the bird to be an abnormal form of H. chrysoptera, 

 wrote his initials on the bottom of its stand, and also the date of deposit 

 in the Academy, and set it aside among the specimens of that species. I 

 think this fact is of much interest, as throwing light on a specimen of a 

 species as rare as H. leucobronckialis, and also as showing its close rela- 

 tion to the Golden-winged Warbler (i/. chrysoptera). — Spencer Trot- 

 ter, Philadelphia, Pa. 



