IOD General Notes. [January 



illinoensis Ridgway, 1S79, must become a synonym of bachmani Audu- 

 bon, 1S34. It may be added tbat there is no doubt whatever that Lichten- 

 stein's Fringilla aestivalis was based on specimens of the dark race. The 

 two will accordingly stand as follows : 



Peucaea aestivalis (Licht.) Cab. — Habitat, Florida and Southern 

 Georgia. 



Peucaea aestivalis bachmani {And.) Breiyst. — Habitat. South Caro- 

 lina, Alabama. Texas. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Southern Illinois and 

 Indiana. 



The respective distribution of these two forms remains to be definitely 

 ascertained. Charleston, South Carolina, seems to be the only point on the 

 Atlantic Coast where var. bachmani — as we must now call the red bird — 

 has been found. It breeds there in abundance, as I learned during the 

 past season (1SS4). when I collected a series of about fifty specimens in 

 April and May. Some of them are intermediates, and a few approach 

 aestivalis rather closely, but the majority are essentially typical bachmani. 

 — William Brewster, Cambridge. A/ass. 



The Black-throated Bunting in Maine. — On Sept. 29. 1S84, I shot a 

 Black-throated Bunting (Spiza americana) at Job's Island, one of the 

 smaller islands in Penobscot Bay, Maine. The bird was found in a grass- 

 field near a farm-house, and proved to be a young male of the year in 

 good plumage. This is, I believe, the first instance of its capture north 

 of Massachusetts. 



The fact that the specimen was a young of the year, and that it was 

 taken during the autumn migration, would lead one to think it had been 

 reared in the region where it was found, or even farther north. — Charles 

 W. Townsexd, Cambridge, Mass. 



Foster Parents of the Cowbird. — During the season of 1S84 I found 

 young Covvbirds Molothrus ater) in the nests of the Kingbird. House 

 Wren, and Chipping Sparrow. — William L. Kells. Listowel, Ontario 



Nest and Eggs of the Rusty Grackle ( Sco/ccop/zajrus ferrugineus) . — I 

 have found but one nest of this species, but its location differs so from 

 that given in the books that I am induced to record a description of it. 

 During the spring of 1SS4 a pair of Rusty Crackles were noticed for 

 several weeks about the garden of a neighbor in the suburbs of St. John, 

 and apparently making their head-quarters in a large spruce which grew 

 within 30 feet of the house, on the c(.\^e of a lawn that formed the daily 

 playground of a bevy of children. 



I had spent many an hour looking for the nest of this species ••among 

 the foliage of low alders overhanging the water," "in low trees and bushes 

 in moist places." and "in swampy tangle," and I was puzzled to deter- 

 mine why this pair were spending the breeding season far away from all 

 such surroundings. There was no doubt about the identification of the 

 birds; I had grown familiar with their appearance from handling numer- 

 ous specimens, and I saw these daily, frequently within a few feet of me. 



