■^°'- X^n General Notes. 8 1 



igo4 J 



Extension of the Breeding Range of the Prairie Horned Lark (O/ocort's 

 alpestris praiicola) to the Eastern Coast. — On August 9, 1903, at Ipswich, 

 Mass., Mr. Ralph Hoffmann saw two adults of this species with a fully 

 grown young bird. Two days later, on August 11, Mr. Thomas L. 

 Bradlee shot, at the same place, two young birds, both females, and saw 

 three other individuals. They were near a road in open fields not far 

 from the sea. Again two days later, on August 13, I secured a young 

 male of this species that was alone on the upper edge of Ipswich beach. 



The specimens secured by Mr. Bradlee were examined by Dr. J. 

 Dwight, Jr., who stated in a letter to Mr. Bradlee that the birds "were 

 undoubtedly /ra^/co/a " and "were in juvenal plumage, moulting into 

 first winter dress, only two oi' three primaries and a few rectrices remain- 

 ing. In this condition this species (or any sparrow) does not and 

 probably can not migrate, so I have no doubt the birds were hatched near 

 where they were found." 



My own bird may have been from another brood, as although it was 

 taken four days later, its plumage is more juvenal, being more spotted 

 above, and having 9 juvenal rectrices and 4 juvenal primaries, against 

 5 rectrices and 3 primaries in Mr. Bradlee's birds. It was taken three 

 miles from the first station. 



The Prairie Horned Lark has been seen at Ipswich before in the fall 

 migrations, but this is the first time it has been found there in the breed- 

 ing season. At last this enterprising bird in its progress eastward has 

 reached the sea. Formerly a bird of the western prairies, it was recorded 

 as breeding near Troy, N. Y., in 1881 (Park, Bull. N. O. C, VI, 1881, p. 

 177). Its first recorded breeding in New England was at Cornwall, Vt., 

 in June, 1889 (C. H. Parkhill, O. & O., XIV, 1889, p. 87). In 1890 speci- 

 mens were secured in the breeding season in Williamstown and North 

 Adams, Mass., by Mr. Walter Faxon ( Faxon, Auk, IX, 1S92, p. 202 ), and 

 a nest and eggs were found near Pittsfield by Mr. C. H. Buckingham 

 July 10, 1892 (Brewster, Auk, XI, 1894, p. 326). 



In 1891 it was observed in June and July at Franconia, N. H. (Faxon, 

 Auk, IX, 1895, p. 202). The foregoing records are from Faxon and 

 Hoffmann on 'The Birds of Berkshire,' 1900, p. 138. They state that the 

 bird is a "rare summer resident at Williamstown, North Adams, Lanes- 

 boro, Pittsfield." 



In 1899 the bird was found breeding as far east as Hubbardston in 

 Worcester County, Mass., Mr. Frederick Cunningham, Jr., in July of 

 that year "finding a nest with eggs from which the 3'oung were safely 

 reared" (Howe & Allen, 'The Birds of Mass.,' 1901, p. 81).— Charles W. 

 TowNSEND, M. D., Boston, Mass. 



Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker and Evening Grosbeak at Well- 

 fleet, Mass. — In the vicinity of Wellfleet, Cape Cod, December 5, I killed 

 a Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker [Picoides arcticus), which is now 

 jn Mr. William Brewster's collection, and saw an Evening Grosbeak 



