Vol ;<£ 5 XI1 ] General Notes. 87 



appeared to be the fur of the northern hare or rabbit nicely felted 

 together. 



This record of Parus hudsonicus would appear to indicate a later season 

 for nesting than that occupied by P. atricapillus, as I discovered a flock 

 of the latter containing both the old and young birds, several days from 

 the nest, feeding only a few rods from the spot where, snug in their tree, 

 lay concealed the brood of young hudsonicus which appeared to be only 

 about a week out of the shell. Accordingly atricapillus must have been 

 out in the world quite ten days before hudsonicus would leave its nest. 



During my rambles in this vicinity in the months of September and 

 October, I found hudsonicus to be more abundant than during previous 

 years, and on at least one occasion a flock containing five or six individ- 

 uals was seen. May we not hope that this occasional resident bird is 

 becoming more abundant within our borders, and that the observations 

 of future seasons may prove it to be a permanent though rare species. — 

 Sanford Ritchie, Dover, Me. 



Hudsonian Chickadee about Boston, Mass. — Mr. M. C. Blake and I 

 have four records of the Hudsonian Chickadee (Parus hudsonicus) in the 

 vicinity of Boston in November, 1904, namely: Middlesex Fells, Virginia 

 Wood, November 4 ; Ipswich, Castle Hill, November 12 ; Belmont, No- 

 vember 25 ; and Waverley, Beaver Brook Reservation, November 25. In 

 each instance a single Hudsonian has been in the company of a flock of 

 Blackcaps in evergreen growth. In the case of the Ipswich bird he was 

 in closely growing young spruces and hardly above the level of the ej r e 

 and was very finely seen while he gave a sweet warbling song. The Bel- 

 mont bird was also well seen and gave a few notes of the warbling song. 

 In another flock of P. atricapillus the distinctive calls of a second hud- 

 sonicus were heard, and when we reached Waverley upon the same after- 

 noon a third hudsonicus was giving calls among a flock of atricapillus. 

 As it has not been my good fortune in previous autumns and winters to 

 meet with this species, it would appear that at least it is in more evidence 

 this season in the vicinity of Boston than for the last five years. — 

 Horace W. Wright, Boston, Mass. 



The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher in the Public Garden, Boston, Mass. — In 

 the early morning of October 22, 1904, which was clear with a light south- 

 westerly wind, following a southeasterly gale of fifty miles an hour along 

 the Middle Atlantic and New England coasts the previous day, I found 

 upon entering our Public Garden in the heart of the city a Blue-gray 

 Gnatcatcher (Polioptila c&rulea). Immediately upon my entrance his 

 call was heard from a neighboring beech, and being different from any 

 call-note with which I was acquainted, — tiny, nervously given and oft- 

 repeated, — it guided me at once to the presence of the bird. He constantly 

 flitted from one bough to another with even more rapidity than does a king- 

 let and was of about kinglet size. The clear blue-gray of the entire head 



