226 General Notes. [^j^Kj 



hence one erratic record would seem too trivial for publication, but it has 

 occurred to me that the note I now make may possibly be of comparative 

 interest. Black-poll Warblers are usually the last of the warblers to leach 

 the District of Columbia in spring. They are likewise among the last to 

 leave it. Singularly enough, in the spring of 1907 they were a little in 

 advance of their average date of arrival. They lingered in more or less 

 abundance throughout the first ten days of June. I recorded the last on 

 June 16, in the grounds of the National Zoological Park. The latest record 

 theretofore was June 6, 1875, but this was not strictly a District record, 

 having been made at Rosslyn, just across the Potomac River, in Virginia. — 

 R. W. Williams, Jr., Washington, D. C. 



The Canon Wren in Colorado. — As I believe this Canon Wren {Catherpes 

 mexicanus conspersus) is considered rather rare in Colorado, the following 

 note may be of interest. February 22, 1907, I obtained a pair of these 

 Wrens in a small rocky gulch about two miles south of Golden. Both 

 seemed rather shy, but after shooting the first one the other remained 

 around the same spot so that I was able to obtain it. October 10, while 

 in the same gulch I saw another Canon Wren near where I had obtained 

 the two in February. I think it probable that these birds breed in this 

 locality and perhaps are not as rare as has been supposed. — Charles D. 

 Test, Golden, Col. 



Red-spotted Bluethroat of Alaska. — While not at all questioning the 

 correctness of Dr. Buturlin's opinion that the Bluethroat of Alaska is 

 different from that of Northern Europe (see Auk, January, 1908, pp. 35- 

 37) , I wish to state that both the description and measurements in ' Birds 

 of North and Middle America' (Vol. IV, p. 15) were taken from European 

 specimens, and that I have not seen specimens from either Alaska or 

 eastern Siberia. Of course I should have so stated in the work mentioned, 

 but unfortunately neglected to do so. — Robi<:rt Ridgway, Washington, 

 D.C. 



A Black Robin and its Albinistic Tendencies. — In November last my 

 attention was called to a caged Robin in this city that had suddenly turned 

 black. I found the bird to be a lively, pugnacious and apparently healthy 

 robin exhibiting a very complete case of melanism. Its plmnage was jet 

 black except for a few small, white under tail coverts, apparently two in 

 number, and that when facing the light and viewed at a certain angle the 

 breast feathers appeared to be terminally banded with blackish brown 

 not distinguishable in other positions. The eye-ring was not noticeable, 

 bill nearly black, anterior surfaces of tarsi and dorsi of toes heavily pig- 

 mented with blackish slate while the plantar surfaces of these were whitish 

 flesh slightly interrupted by slate color. 



The history of this bird, as given me by its owner and corroborated by a 

 local physician who has known it for the last three and a half years, is 



