274 Goicral Notes. [j^^^",^ 



Bell's Vireo and the Sandhill Crane in New Hampshire. — Mr. Ned 

 Dearborn of Durham, New Hampshire, has kiiuUv given me permission 

 to publisli the following interesting notes : — 



Bell's Vireo ( Vireo belli). On November 19, 1S97, Mr. Dearborn was 

 driving along a country road in Durham when his attention was attracted 

 by a small bird which was hopping actively about among some poison ivy 

 vines that had overrun a stone wall. As it looked unfamiliar he shot it, 

 I have since examined it carefully- and it proves to be a perfectly typical 

 example of V. belli., a species not hitherto reported, I believe, from any 

 part of New England. 



Sandhill Crane {Grus niexicana). Mr, Dearborn tells me that he has 

 recently purchased a Sandhill Crane of Mr. J. S. Turner, a taxideiinist 

 at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, who asserts that the bird was killed at 

 Loveirs Pond, Wakefield, New Hampshire, in eitiier 1S96 or 1897, and 

 brought to him in the flesh in fresh condition, but he has forgotten the 

 name of the man who shot it nor can he remember the exact date. Mr. 

 Turner has lived in Portsmouth many years and bears an excellent local 

 reputation for reliability of statement. The specimen is mounted and 

 was still encased in winding cotton, with the neck-wire projecting uncut 

 through the top of the head, when Mr. Dearborn first saw it. Witli the 

 BelFs \'ir^o above mentioned it is now preserved in the collection of the 

 State Agricultural College at Duiham. There are, as far as I can ascer- 

 tain, no previous records of the occurrence of the Sandhill Crane in New 

 Hampshire during the past century, although Belknap, writing in 1792 

 (Hist. N. H., Ill, 1792, p. 169) mentions it without comment in his list of 

 the birds of that State. — William Brewster, Cambridge., Moss. 



Bachman's Warbler {Helminthofkila backmanii) Rediscovered near 

 Charleston, South Carolina. — I am pleased to announce the capture of an 

 adult male of this interesting W^arbler, by myself, near the village of 

 Mount Pleasant, S. C, on the morning of May 15, 1901. I heard the 

 song of what I was almost sure was a Parula Warbler singing lazily, and 

 out of mere curiosity 1 went to locate the singer. I found the singer near 

 the top of a sweet gum, but was unable to identify him positively as the 

 morning was dark and cloudj'. He flew from his perch to the low bushes, 

 which formed the dense undergrowth, and was so restless and active that 

 I could scarcely follow him except by the incessant song which he uttered 

 at the rate of fifteen times a minute. At last I had a plain view of him as 

 he sat upon a dead pine twig with his breast towards me, when I realized 

 that it was the bird I had been looking for in this State for eighteen years. 

 There was no mistake, as it was not the first Bachman's Warbler I had 

 ever seen or shot. I watched the bird closely for thirteen minutes as I 

 was sure his mate was setting or building a nest near at hand, as he kept 

 singing in one locality and did not wander far off, but the temptation was 

 too great to lose such a rare prize and I fired and killed the first Bach- 



