^°^-^^n General Notes. 487 



iqo4 J T / 



Breeding of the Dickcissel in New Jersey. — On July 3, 1904, while 

 passing along a country road near Plainfield, New Jersey, I heard an 

 unfamiliar and very unmusical song coming across the field. It soon 

 ceased but before I had started on again it suddenly came down from 

 almost over mv head with such distinctness that I guessed the singer's 

 name and, looking up, saw a Dickcissel (Spiza americana) perched on a 

 telegraph wire above. After singing for a while, during which I had an 

 excellent view of him through my glass, he flew back over the field. As 

 he was evidently at home I decided to make the most of my opportunity, 

 so spent the greater part of the day there. To my great satisfaction I 

 soon found that the Dickcissel had a mate. She was shy and most of the 

 time kept well hidden in the grass. The male sang persistently from 

 three widelv separated perches on as many sides of the field, — the lower 

 branches of a large black walnut, the top of an apple tree and the tele- 

 graph wires over the road. The field in which the birds were located was 

 a grass field of mixed timothy and red-top with considerable red clover in 

 parts and with a sprinkling of fleabane and black-eyed susans. 



On the following day I visited the place with three ornithological 

 friends. We saw both the old birds and in addition were delighted to 

 find two young birds, one of which I secured. This specimen is a female 

 in Juvenal plumage with the first feathers of the winter plumage begin- 

 ning to appear. The wings are not full grown and the tail is less than two- 

 thirds of the full length. There cannot, of course, be the slightest doubt 

 that these young birds were bred in this locality. Neither of the parents 

 were taken, and it is hoped that they will return next year. As I had 

 passed this field many times in the last few years it is unlikely that any 

 Dickcissels nested in it before this season. 



Mr. S. N. Rhoads allows me to state that he believes a specimen or two 

 of this species was taken near Philadelphia this spring. As these are the 

 first records for New Jersey or eastern Pennsylvania since 1890, they 

 evidently indicate a tendency of the Dickcissels to return to their old 

 haunts. The breeding record is the first for New Jersey or eastern Penn- 

 sylvania since 1879, although a few pairs doubtless bred as late as 1881. 

 It is also apparently the first record for the entire Atlantic coast plain 

 since 1884, when the species is recorded as breeding at Chester, South 

 Carolina. There is little doubt, however, that the bird observed by Dr. J. 

 Dwight, Jr., at Kingston, New York, on June 5, 1896, was breeding. 



Mr. Rhoads wishes me to state that he has made a careful comparison 

 of eastern and western Dickcissels without finding the slightest differ- 

 ence between them. — W. De W. Miller, Atner. Mus. Nat. Hist., New 

 York City. 



Another Nest of Kirtland's Warbler. — On June 15, 1904, I found /?<-«- 

 droica kirtlandi in full song and breeding in Oscoda County, Northern 

 Michigan. I took both p'arents, the nest, and four fresh eggs. The nest 



