lSS 7-] General Notes. 1 6 3 



cept that the yellow on the wings was rather paler; the tips of the wings 

 and the back of the neck were more sooty black, and I think it was a 

 little larger"; — a description indicating an immature bird, which is what 

 we should have expected, since it is from the ranks of these youngsters 

 that nine-tenths of the erratic wanderers visiting our shores are recruited. 

 The late hours of the 26th of October and the early ones of the 27th 

 would seem, from the returns, to have constituted an important 'immigra- 

 tion night,' as a few particulars furnished from the schedule of the Nash 

 Light will make manifest : — At 9.50 p.m., Missel Thrushes (Turdus vis- 

 civorus) ; at 10 p.m., Bramblings (Fringilla montifrigilla) ; at 10.30 

 p.m., Snipes {Gallinago ccelesti's), four of which struck and were killed; 

 at 12.40 a.m., Redwings (Turdus iliacus), two killed; at 2 a.m.. Wrens 

 {Troglodytes pa rz'ulus), one captured; at 2.10 a.m., Robins (JSrithacus 

 rubecula), and Black Redstart {Ruticilla titys), killed; and finally at 3 

 a.m., the bird in which we are specially interested. The wind prevailing 

 at the time was a strong easterly breeze; weather cloudy with passing 

 showers of rain. — Wm. Eagle Clarke, F. L. S., The Museum, Leeds, 

 England. 



The Redpolls of Massachusetts. — In his 'Revised List of the Birds of 

 Massachusetts' Mr. Allen includes only two Redpolls, Acantkis linaria 

 and A. I. rostrata. He does not give his reasons for excluding Acanthi* 

 hornemanni exilipes, but whatever they may have been, this bird has an 

 indisputable right to a place in our fauna. I have examined the speci- 

 men taken by Jeffries at Swampscott, Nov. 16, 1878 (see Bull. N. O. C, 

 IV, April, 1879, P- I2 ! tna t shot by Atkinson and recorded by Dr. 

 Brewer (Proc. Bos. Soc. N. H., XX, 1S79, p. 270); and a bird in the 

 Cambridge Museum, to which Mr. Allen probably referred when he at- 

 tributed exilipes to Massachusetts in 1870 (Am. Nat., Ill, p. 583), and all 

 three are unmistakable examples of A. h. exilipes. To this number I can 

 add the following, none of which seem to have been previously an- 

 nounced* : 



A male in the collection of Mr. H. M. Spelman, taken Nov. 15, 1880, in 

 Cambridge; a pair shot at Revere Beach, Mass., March 8, 1879, D J Mr. 

 Foster H. Brackett, and now in the collection of Mr. Charles R. Lamb ; a 

 pair killed at Revere Beach, March 9, 18S3, by Messrs. Spelman and Chad- 

 bourne, the former of whom has the male, the latter the female ; and a 

 male shot at Nantasket Beach, Feb. 22, 18S3, by Matthew Lucas, Jr., and 

 in the collection of the present writer. All of the males just mentioned 

 are in gray (immature ?) plumage. 



Besides the forms above referred to, a fourth occurs, at least rarely, in 

 Massachusetts. This is Acanthi's linaria holba?llii Brehm, of which I 

 have two examples,! shot together at Swampscott, March 26, 1S83; both 

 are males, one in gray plumage, the other a rosy-breasted adult (?). 



* Several of them, perhaps, were incidentally referred to by Mr. Chadbourne (Quar. 

 Jour. Boston Zool. Soc, Vol. II, April, 1883, p. 31). 



t Dr. Stejneger has kindly examined them and confirmed my determination. 



