230 General Notes. [ A ^n 



The Hudsonian Chickadee (Penthestes hudsonicus subsp.?) in North- 

 eastern Pennsylvania in June. — In company with Richard C. Harlow, 

 Richard F. Miller and Albert D. McGrew, I spent three weeks in the field 

 in the spring of 1917 about La Anna, Pike County, Pa., and June 3, while 

 searching a large sphagnum bog for a nest of the elusive Northern Water- 

 Thrush, two brown capped chickadees were seen. I had gotten a little 

 behind the others and was hurrying to catch up to them when the unmis- 

 takable nasal " chick-a-dee-dee " of one of these birds was heard. It had 

 happened that earlier in the spring I had seen a single individual (Auk, 

 1917, p. 344) and had become familiar with its notes so I recognized 

 it at once. The birds, two of them, were feeding in several small tamaracks 

 and with characteristic lack of timidity allowed a close approach where 

 their identity was established beyond doubt. They showed a preference 

 for a certain part of the bog that we had been floundering through but 

 although several suspicious looking holes were found, we could detect no 

 signs of their nesting. I returned to this spot the next day, and had no 

 difficulty in finding the birds again. This time I spent two hours trailing 

 them but with no success other than leaving with the conviction that they 

 were mated and if not as yet nesting here, would undoubtedly do so. Not 

 satisfied, however, all of us returned the following day and made another 

 attempt but with no more luck though we again found them at the same 

 place. The necessity of leaving soon after for another part of the state 

 made further study of the birds impossible. From what we had seen, 

 however, there seemed little doubt but that the birds intended to breed 

 in this tamarack swamp. The situation in which they were found was 

 typical of that much farther north, being indeed a northern muskeg in 

 every sense of the word, with lichen covered tamarack, deep beds of 

 sphagnum moss and scattered pools. — Thos. D. Burleigh, State College, Pa. 



Hudsonian Chickadee on the Pocono Mountain, Pa. — On the 



morning of June 17, 1917, at Pocono Lake, Pa., I found a pair of brown- 

 headed chickadees, probably the Labrador (Penthestes h. nigricans). The 

 location was at the edge of a sphagnum swamp amid a dense grove of 

 dwarf spruces. When discovered the birds evidenced considerable ex- 

 citement and came and scolded within three feet of me. Their actions 

 and movements were more deliberate and confiding then those of either 

 the Black-capped or Carolina species. I noticed one of them examining a 

 small hole in a decayed stub which led me to believe it to be a nesting 

 site. This was not the case however, although the conditions seemed 

 favorable, as the cavity contained nothing but a few chips of bark. The 

 birds remained in the locality during all the time that I was there. 



On the following morning I found the birds again in the same location 

 but was unable to study them subsequent to this as I made my departure 

 from the district that afternoon. 



Mentioning my discovery to Mr. John D. Carter, who had arranged to 

 visit the country a week later, he made a further search for the birds but 

 was able to find but one of them. 



