176 



General Note. [** 



Abnormal Plumage of a Pine Grosbeak. — -On the 30th of December, 

 1895,1 took a specimen of the female Pine Grosbeak (Pi/iicola enucleator) 

 at Shelburne, N. II. On looking the bird over carefully I noticed an un- 

 broken ring of feathers, like those of the upper back in color and texture, 

 extending over the left shoulder, where the band measures .75 of an inch 

 in width, and continuing across the breast and terminating on the right 

 shoulder, its width having decreased .20 of an inch. The band is com- 

 posed of thirty-three feathers, that is, beginning to count as soon as they 

 are out of their normal position on the back, and are of much deeper slate 

 color than those above or below them ; the centre of each feather is tinged 

 with crome \ ellow and they are longer than the surrounding ones, stand- 

 ing out almost like a ruff. The flesh of the neck was perfectly normal 

 and the bird apparently had never been injured. I have the specimen 

 now in my collection. — Reginald IIebkk Howe, Jr., Longwood, Muss. 



The American Crossbill at Sea. — Early on the morning of February 

 26, 1896, an American Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra minor), a female or 

 dull-colored male, was found on the deck of the steamer ' Trinidad ' 

 bound for New York from the Bermudas. I saw the bird, which was in 

 an exhausted condition, at eight o'clock, and was told that it had come 

 aboard some time before that hour. The American coast must then have 

 been about three hundred miles distant. 



When the 'Trinidad' left Grassy Bay, late in the afternoon of Febru- 

 ary 24, there was little wind, nor was there much until noon of the day 

 following, when it began to blow- from the northeastward, freshening 

 constantly, and developing into a gale before the bird came aboard. — John 

 Clifford Brown, Portland, Me. 



Harris's Sparrow in Spring Dress in Autumn. — While out shooting on 

 Nov. 1, 1895, I shot a Harris's Sparrow {Zonotrichia querula) in full 

 spring plumage. It is a male bird of the year. It was in a large flock of 

 1 [arris's Sparrows, but was the only one in spring plumage, all the others 

 being in fall dress. — Sidney S. Wilson, St. Joseph, Mo. 



A Brown Thrasher {Harporhynchus rufus) in Massachusetts in 

 Winter. — On December 15, 1894, I discovered, a Brown Thrasher in 

 Arlington, Mass. I made my identification as sure as possible without 

 shooting the bird, because I knew that the middle of December was later 

 than this bird usually remains in Massachusetts. A few days after I first 

 saw him, Mr. Walter Faxon, to whom I had reported my observations, 

 again found the bird in almost exactly the same spot. 



From Dec. 15 until Christmas, the bird was visited regularly, and he 

 seemed to be able to supply himself with food: but on Dec. 27, there 

 came the first heavy snowstorm of the winter, covering the ground with 

 from four to five inches of snow, on top of which was a crust strong 



