Vol.XXXVIl 



1919 



General Notes. 575 



(May 31, 1917). On May 30, 1917, from Alexandria to Fredericksburg 

 we did not record it. This species was heard south of Petersburg for a short 

 distance, and from this vicinity (1918, Camp Lee) Mr. Harper wrote me that 

 he and Mr. Holt recorded it as well. The above notes would indicate a 

 much wider range in Virginia than that given by the author of ' The Birds 

 of Virginia, 1913 ' (p. 224).— A. H. Wright, Ithaca, N. Y. 



The Dickcissel in Virginia. — On May 31, 1917, in the outskirts of 

 Richmond, Va., Dr. H. H. Knight and I discovered a fine singing male 

 beside the road in what looked to be a real estate development tract. We 

 were following the main auto route from Washington into Richmond. I 

 was attracted to it by first seeing it — my first live Dickcissel ; while Dr. 

 Knight recognized the sound as a reminder of his home country (Missouri). 

 This record is published because the author chanced to see a note a few 

 months ago (Wilson Bulletin) by an ornithologist of Virginia to the effect 

 that he had not seen the Dickcissel in Virginia for twenty years. — A. H. 

 Wright, Ithaca, N. Y. 



Piranga erythromelas versus Piranga olioacea. — Since the discovery 

 that Fringilla rubra Linnseus (Syst. Nat., ed. 10, I, 175S, p. 181) is the 

 Summer Tanager instead of the Scarlet Tanager, the latter has passed 

 under the name Piranga erythromelas (Vieillot). There seems, however, to 

 be an earlier name for the Scarlet Tanager in Tanagra olivacea Gmelin 

 (Syst. Nat., I, ii, 1789, p. 889). This is based on " l'Olivet " of Buffon 

 (Hist. Nat. Ois. [original edition], IV, 1778, p. 269); the " Olive Tanager " 

 of Pennant (Arctic Zool., II, 1785, p. 369, No. 238); and the " Olive Tana- 

 ger " of Latham (Gen. Synop. Birds, II, pt. 1, 1783, p. 218, No. 4); and 

 the habitat given as " Cayenna et Noveboraco." The diagnosis given by 

 Gmelin is as follows: " T. olivacea, gula et pectore flavis, abdomine albo, 

 remigibus rectricibusque fuscis margine albis." This diagnosis is almost 

 a literal translation, though somewhat abridged, of the descriptions given 

 by Pennant and Latham, both of which latter are essentially the same. 

 In fact, Latham refers to Pennant's then unpublished ' Arctic Zoology,' 

 and Pennant in this work cites Latham's account. A comparison of the 

 diagnosis given by Gmelin and the descriptions of Latham and Pennant 

 with a peculiar transition plumage of the Scarlet Tanager, and their 

 descriptions of their female Olive Tanager with the female Scarlet Tanager, 

 leaves no doubt at all of their entire agreement. 



This peculiar transition plumage above mentioned seems to be little 

 known, probably because of its brief duration and consequent rarity in 

 collections. It is a stage, alike in both sexes, between the juvenal and the 

 first autumn plumages, in which the juvenal feathering of the entire upper 

 parts is retained, but on the anterior lower surface the streaked condition 

 of the juvenal stage has been replaced by olive yellow; while the abdomen 

 has lost so much of its yellowish tinge that at superficial glance it looks white. 



The descriptions given by both Pennant and Latham were based on spec i- 



