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l8g6 General Notes. 1 79 



Further on in this favored woodland where the trees were scattered, but 

 the underbrush dense, a pair of Mourning Warblers {Geot/ilyfiis Philadel- 

 phia) were feeding their young; not far distant another pair had a nest 

 full of fresh eggs concealed among the blackberry bushes and ferns beside 

 a moss-covered log. 



Near Springville the Hooded Warbler {Sylvania tnitrata) was common. 

 Nest and eggs of this species were taken here and at East Hamburg. 

 The Black-throated Blue Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Black- 

 burnian Warbler, and Black and Yellow Warbler were all found in full- 

 breeding dress and song. The nest and eggs of Sylvania canadensis were 

 taken on the 5th of June; also a pair of the old birds and a young bird in 

 full plumage the last of June, 1S95. — Elan Howard Eaton, Canan- 

 daigua, N, Y. 



Virginia Notes. — My notes of a visit to Southwestern Virginia in the 

 spring of 1S95 — April 24 to May 9 — contain three or four items which 

 may be worthy of record. 



Chondestes grammacus. — On April 28, at Pulaski, I found a bird of 

 this species feeding in grass-land, where it allowed me to watch it at my 

 pleasure. Dr. Rives reports a single Virginia specimen as having been 

 taken in Washington, and in 'The Auk' for January, 1S96, Mr. William 

 Palmer records a second specimen taken in August, 1S95. 



Helminthophila chrysoptera. — Of the species Dr. Rives mentions a 

 single Virginia specimen, taken near Washington by Dr. Fisher. At 

 Pulaski, I saw four or more individuals April 28 to May 1. On my last 

 morning there (May 1), in a hurried visit of afew minutes to the edge of 

 the woods near the hotel, I found two Golden-wings among a bevy of 

 new arrivals of different species. The Warbler migration was still only 

 beginning, and I had then little doubt that a longer stay would show the 

 species to be prettv common. All my birds were males. 



Dendroica caerulea. — This species marked by Dr. Rives as "accidental 

 or very rare," seemed to be moderately common at Natural Bridge, where it 

 frequented exclusively the tops of hills covered with old deciduous forest. 

 I saw it first on Ma}' 4. Two days later a female was seen gathering nest 

 materials, but a long hunt failed to find the nest itself. The males sang 

 with the utmost freedom. On May 6 I found them thus engaged on four 

 hilltops. 



It may be worth adding that Red Crossbills {Loxia curvirostra minor) 

 were seen or heard on four dates at Pulaski and Natural Bridge, and 

 that I found a flock of five birds feeding at Arlington, in the national 

 cemetery, on May 12. — Bradford Torrey, Wellesley Hills, Mass. 



On Birds reported as rare in Cook County, 111. — Porzana novebora- 

 censis. — In Ridgway's Birds of Illinois, this species is given as not 

 uncommon, but from the observations of Mr. J. G. Parker and myself the 

 Yellow Rail is a quite common resident of Cook Countv. I have had no 



