iS8s-] General Notes. ^07 



meadows which border the Croton River near its mouth. Some dozen 

 or more specimens have been secured in the last four or five years, and 

 without exception all of them were of the smaller inland variety. They 

 are easily distinguished from the typical maritime species, by their 

 smaller size, shorter bill, and darker plumage. They are evidently 

 migrants, as none of them have been observed in this vicinity in summer. 

 —A. K. Fisher, M. D., Sing Sing, N. T. 



Swamp Sparrows and Yellow-rumps — A Question of Evidence. — It 

 scums well to caution collectors against the inference that a bird winters 

 in a given locality because it happens to be found there at some time during 

 the winter. The writers of two interesting notes, printed on page 2i6of 

 the present volume of 'The Auk,' make this hasty generalization. It is 

 hardly possible that Swamp Sparrows passed the winter in Massachusetts, 

 in a season so rigorous as was that of 1884-85 after the middle of January; 

 Mr. Chadboume certainly does not produce sufficient evidence for the 

 conclusion that they did so. It is even less likely that Yellow-rumped 

 Warblers tarried in Maine throughout the same season; no person who 

 kept a record of the weather during that remarkable winter will, I think, 

 draw such an inference from Mr. Goodale's note. — Nathan CLIFFORD 

 Brown, Portland, Me. 



The Song of Cardinalis virginianus. — Mr. Bicknell's note on the song 

 of the Cardinal Grosbeak reminds me that it sings at a much earlier dale 

 in Kansas. It is a permanent resident, abundant at all seasons. Its 

 song maybe heard from February 1 to August. Should the days be bright 

 and warm, its song begins even in January. If, during February, the 

 weather should become extremely cold, its song ceases for a time. Like 

 the Mockingbird {Mimiis folyglottus), it sings at night. I have heard its 

 song in the 'small hours' of the night, during February, March, and April. 

 — D. E. Lantz, Manhattan, Kans. 



The Black-throated Bunting, Yellow-breasted Chat, and Connecticut 

 Warbler in Ontario. — On June I, 1884, Mr. Win. L. Bailey, collecting with 

 Mr. A. P. Saunders and the writer at Point Pelee, found several Black- 

 throated Buntings in a meadow about two miles from the end of the Point. 

 Knowing of no previous record in Canada, we were all much interested; 

 and subsequently, in extending our search, we found one or more pairs in 

 almost every field. All our efforts to discover a nest seemed doomed to 

 fail; and even when we spent much time and care in watching the birds, 

 and marking down the place where the supposed nest was, we could never 

 succeed. The males spent much time in singing their monotonous ditty 

 from tree-tops and fence-posts, and even during the heat of the day our 

 presence was sufficient to start them going. This appeared to act as a 

 partial alarm to the female, and if we approached, the male would fly over 

 her and give an alarm-note, precisely after the manner of the Bobolink 

 under similar circumstances. 



