2 I 6 General Notes. [April 



River. The Farallones (Spanish, meaning pointed rocks in tiie sea) are 

 disposed in three groups several miles apart, the largest being about a 

 mile long and lying thirty miles west of the Golden Gate. They are well 

 named, for there is neither soil nor vegetation upon them, except the 

 guano of the birds and three species of weeds. In summer the eggs of 

 the birds which swarm there to breed, are gathered by the barrel-full for 

 the San Francisco market. — Chas. H. Townsend, Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, Washington, D. C. 



The Yellow-rumped Warbler Wintering in Maine. — On January i, 1885. 

 I shot two Yellow-rumped Warblers (Dendrceca coronata) from a flock of 

 six at Pine Point, Maine. On opening the crop of one, I found it filled 

 with the seeds of the pitch pine. I believe this species has never before 

 been taken in the winter season north of Massachusetts. — Joseph L. 

 Goodale, Cambridge, Mass. 



The Migration of the Swallows. — I have noticed for several years that 

 before the young Swallows were capable of enduring a prolonged flight, 

 old and young gathered together in one vast assembly and moved 

 gradually southward, making short stages from farm to farm ; at last (in 

 1SS4, on August 9), with a favorable north wind and a clear sky, they left 

 the Island in a body, only a few- stragglers remaining, just enough to 

 remind us that summer was still with us. — Francis Bain, North 

 River, P E. T. 



Nelson's Sharp-tailed Finch (Ammodratnus caudacutus nelsoni) on the 

 Atlantic Coast. — Mr- Arthur T. Wayne sends me a Sharp-tailed Finch 

 which is positively indistinguishable from Illinois specimens, but which 

 was shot on the salt marshes near Charleston. South Carolina, Oct. 8, 

 1SS4. That it is really an inland-bred bird scarcely admits of a doubt, 

 nor is its occurrence on this coast altogether surprising in view of the 

 fact that other species which breed only in the interior — Coturniculus 

 lecontei, for example — extend their autumnal migrations in a south-east- 

 erlv direction and winter numerously very near to, if not actually on, the 

 Atlantic seaboard.— William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



Wintering of the Swamp Sparrow in Eastern Massachusetts. — The cap- 

 ture of two Swamp Sparrows {Mclospiza palustris) in Cambridge, on 

 January 11. 1SS3. has already been recorded,* but a second instance may 

 be of interest. 



On December 29, 1SS4, a flock of four were seen and one killed in a 

 dense thicket on the Fresh Pond marshes in Cambridge, and on January 

 31, iSSt;, near the same place. I saw the remains of another, which had 

 been partly eaten by a Shrike. Since then I have looked for them several 

 times unsuccessfully, but think that the rest had probably been killed by 

 Shrikes. — Arthur P. Chadbourne, Cambridge, Mass. 



* journal Boston Zoological Society, Vol. II (1883), p. 32. 



