88 Getieral Notes. [~^ uk 



Ljan. 



and back, the white outer tail-feathers, the drooping of the wings and erect- 

 ness of the tail at once made his identity clear. He was also engaged in 

 his Sittings in catching and eating insects. His companions were Black- 

 poll Warblers and Juncos. From the beech he took flight into a tall syca- 

 more maple and gradually worked down from the top of the tree into the 

 lower branches, where he was seen at very near range and his catching of 

 insects was observed with much interest. The House Sparrows, how- 

 ever, soon began to make trouble for him and at length drove him to a 

 distance, but not before I had spent twenty minutes with this so rare bird 

 in Massachusetts and made good acquaintance with it. I had not ob- 

 served whether it had a black forehead and black line over the eye, not 

 knowing at the time that these markings differentiate the male from the 

 female, but as the color of the entire upper parts was a conspicuously 

 clear blue-gray, and Coues's ' Key' describes the female as " duller and 

 more grayish above," it was not improbably a male. When I made my 

 usual morning visit to the Public Garden the next day, the Gnatcatcher 

 could not be found. In the ' Birds of Massachusetts,' compiled by 

 Messrs. R. H. Howe, Jr., and G. M. Allen, and issued in 1901, but six 

 records of Polioptila ccendea are given, namely : Chatham, November 18, 

 1877; Falmouth, December 18, 1877; Magnolia, August 27, 1879; Oster- 

 ville, September 26, 1879 ; Brookline, September 8, 1887 ; Highland 

 Light, October 9, 1889. In the opinion of Mr. Willam Brewster it is not 

 improbable that the bird may have drifted north before the southerly 

 storm of October 21. — Horace W. Wright, Boston, Mass. 



Notes on Several Rare Southeastern Michigan Birds.— Gavia lumme. 

 Red-throated Loon. — We recently examined an immature bird of this 

 species in the flesh which was shot November 11, 1904, on the Detroit 

 River, near Point Mouille, by a local gunner and sent in to L. J. Eppinger, 

 the local taxidermist, for mounting. This is the first record for Gavia 

 lumme in southeastern Michigan, and there are but two records for the 

 southern peninsula, both very old. 



Oidemia deglandi. White-winged Scoter. — A bird of this species, 

 sex not determined, was shot November 11, 1904, on the Detroit River, 

 off Point Mouille, and sent in for mounting to Mr. Eppinger. No prior 

 record for Wayne County is obtainable, although Mr. Swales examined a 

 mounted specimen taken at the North Channel, St. Clair Flats, by Henry 

 Avery during the fall of 1900. 



Oidemia perspicillata. Surf Scoter. — A female Surf Scoter was shot 

 at the St. Clair Flats, St. Clair County, on October 13, 1904, and sent in 

 with other ducks to Mr. Eppinger's, where we examined it. This is the 

 second record for the species in this section, but without doubt both this 

 and O. deglandi are occasionally shot by the gunners without the birds 

 falling into any ornithologist's hands. 



Cistothorus stellaris. Short-billed Marsh Wren. — On October 2, 

 1904, Mr. Swales shot a female in Wayne County, six miles north of De- 



