420 General Notes. [^ 



Several days later, on the Wilmington and Northern tracks near the 

 same place, I picked up a young Grasshopper Sparrow — also dead but 

 without a mark. All three of these birds were in the juvenile plumage 

 and of about the same age — just beginning to use their wings. Does it 

 show lack of intelligence on the part of the young bird? I believe a great 

 many are killed this way every year and I have never found an adult bird 

 that had been killed by a train. 



I believe it is due more to their weak flight than to anything else. Thev 

 get near the tracks and the suction caused by the passing train draws 

 them beneath it, their wings being too weak to resist the strain. — Chres- 

 WELL J. Hunt, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Some Massachusetts Records of Interest.— During the past vear I 

 have noted several birds of some interest in this region. 



Late fall migrants, 1904, include : 



Empidonax minimus, Chebec, Concord Turnpike, Lexington, Oct. 2, 

 one. 



Dendroica maculosa, Magnolia Warbler, Waltham, Oct. 9, one. 



Dendroica striata, Blackpoll Warbler, Cambridge, Nov. 7, one. 



An interesting winter record is Euphagus carolinus, Rusty Blackbird, 

 Concord Turnpike, Concord, Jan. 22, 1905, one. 



Early spring migrants, 1905, include: 



Butorides virescens, Green Heron, Charles River, Needham, Apr. 9, 

 one. 



Zonotrichia leucophrys, White-crowned Sparrow, Hobb's Brook, Lex- 

 ington, May 4, one. 



Corcyzus erythrophthalmus, Black-billed Cuckoo, Rock Meadow, Bel- 

 mont, May 4, one. 



Other records of interest, 1905 : 



Oidemia deglandi, White-winged Scoter, one male, Arlington, Spy 

 Pond, May 9. 



Bartramia longicanda, Bartramian Sandpiper, Ipswich River, North 

 Reading, May 13, one. 



Icterus spurius, Orchard Oriole, Ipswich, May 28, one male. 

 Vireo noveboracensis, White-eved Vireo, Ipswich River, South Middle- 

 ton, June 9, one. — Arthur C. Comey, Cambridge, Mass. 



Notes from Northwestern Connecticut. — Otocoris alpestris praticola. — 

 On May 25, 1905, I secured a pair of these birds in a meadow on the crest 

 of a low ridge about eight miles south of the village of Litchfield. They 

 undoubtedly had a nest there, for they both had been seen in the same 

 meadow the preceding day, and the thin skin of the belly of the female 

 indicated that she probably had a brood. Both were very shy, which I 

 have not found to be the case with these birds later in the season. I 

 believe that this is the first breeding record for the State of Connecticut. 



Helminthophila peregrina. — It may be of interest to note that the 



