228 General Notes. LApril 



town, New Jersey, June 14, 1888, by Mr. L. P. Scherrer. So far as we are 

 aware, this is the fourth record of this species in New Jersey and the second 

 specimen secured. — Harry C. Oberholser, Washington, D. C. 



The Subspecific Name of the Northern Parula Warbler. — To 



change the well-established name of any bird for almost any reason has 

 always seemed to me something best left undone. Nevertheless there are 

 cases where it cannot be avoided. This, perhaps, is true of the one thus 

 referred to by Dr. Oberholser, in a personal letter dated January 21, 1918. 

 " You will note that in your paper in ' The Auk,' XIII, 1896, p. 44, you 

 rejected the name Sylvia pusilla Wilson (Amer. Orn., IV, 1811, p. 17, pi. 28, 

 fig. 3), because presumably preoccupied by Sylvia pusilla Latham (Supple- 

 ment Ind. Orn., 1801, p. 56). This latter name, however, results merely 

 from the putting into the genus Sylvia of Motacilla pusilla White (Journ. 

 Voy. New S. Wales, 1790, p. 257, pi. 42), which is now Acanthiza pusilla 

 (White). According to our present rules of nomenclature, the name 

 Sylvia pusilla Latham, not being an original description, but merely a 

 nomenclatural combination, does not prevent any subsequent use of the 

 same combination; therefore, the name Sylvia pusilla Wilson, of which 

 the type locality is eastern Pennsylvania, becomes available for the north- 

 ern form of the warbler which you named Compsothlypis americana usneai, 

 and which would, therefore, stand as Compsothlypis americana pusilla. 

 I think I have thus given you all the references and data necessary to write 

 up the matter for publication, and I trust I have made myself clear. It 

 seems very much better for you to make the change than for me to do so, 

 since you were the discoverer and original describer of the subspecies." 



With the above statement of fact and opinion I now see no reason to 

 disagree — especially as the change thereby suggested will result in the 

 restoration of a time-honored name, to which Wilson seems justly entitled. 

 Nor could any one be otherwise than pleased with courtesy so gracious and 

 self-obliterative as that expressed in the closing sentence of Dr. Ober- 

 holser's characteristic letter. — William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



Bachman's Warbler and Solitary Sandpiper in Indiana.— On 



May 16, 1917, while working through a fine bit of warbler woods near 

 Indianapolis, I was startled by an apparition of a male Bachman's warbler 

 (Vermivora bachmani). The pretty fellow popped up from a low bush in a 

 mass of undergrowth and after fluttering among the twigs for a moment 

 dropped down out of sight. I was about to conclude that I had been 

 dreaming of rare warblers when up came the bird again from the same 

 bush and his second visit was much longer than his first. I had a fine 

 chance to note his yellow forehead and throat with the great splotch of 

 black on his chest. After a time he left for a distant part of the woods 

 traveling leisurely from low bush to low bush inspecting the twigs critically 

 and taking insects constantly. I finally lost him. Afterward I visited the 

 woods several days in succession hoping to see the bird but without result 



