264 General Notes. 



inadvertence, the name was altered to 5\ rubricapilla in a later volume 

 of Wilson (Amer. Orn., VI, 1S12, 15) and this appears to be the earliest 

 eligible name for the Nashville Warbler. Under the A. O. U. Code. Nos. 

 645 and 645a of the 'Check-List' should therefore stand as Helmintho- 

 phila rubricafilla (Wils.) and Helminthopkila rubricapilla gutturalis 

 (Ridgw.). — Walter Faxon, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cam- 

 bridge, A/ass. 



Bachman's Warbler (Helminthop/iila bac/imani) in Greene County, 

 Arkansas. — -Very early on the morning of May 7, 1896, while in the com- 

 pany of Mr. O. C. Poling, I heard among the score of voices a song which 

 was new to me. It suggested a relationship to Helminthophila pi/ius, 

 but it had several more notes to it. Neither was it a Parula song. After 

 a little search we found the singer, a small yellow bird with conspicuous 

 black throat and black crown, perched twelve feet above dry ground on 

 the lower branch of a medium-sized tree surrounded by a heavy growth 

 of blackberry and other bushes. It did not take me long to identify the 

 bird, nor did it take Mr. Poling long to secure it. 



Two davs afterwards, May 9, we found and secured in the same manner 

 a second male, only a few rods from where we took the first, but circum- 

 stances, among them, two very dead hogs, prevented a thorough search 

 for the nests and females in the vicinity. The highly developed testes 

 showed that they were breeding. The black of the throat extends from the 

 chin to the breast. The locality is in the region of the peninsula of Mis- 

 souri, on Boland Island, on the Arkansas side of the St. Francis River, 

 and therefore in Greene County, Arkansas. — O. Widmann, Old Orchard, 

 Mo. 



Second Occurrence of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher in Maine. — On the 

 morning of April iS, 1896, while driving past a farm-yard on Cape Eliza- 

 beth, about three miles from Portland, I heard the nasal call-note of a 

 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher {Polioptila ca?rulea). In another moment I saw 

 the bird fly from an old oak to an orchard close at hand. Here I watched 

 him at my leisure. He was very active, but not at all shy, coming sev- 

 eral times within eight or ten feet of me, constantly calling, often singing, 

 and repeatedly, of course, displaying his characteristic form and colors. 

 There was no bird of any kind with him. An hour later, I drove past the 

 farm-yard again, and found him still in the neighborhood, having simply 

 crossed the highway. He was still entirely alone. I drove within a few 

 feet of him, and watched him for several minutes, — until he again flew 

 off into the orchard. 



The weather throughout New England was almost summer-like for a 

 week preceding April 18, and to this fact, perhaps, was due the bird's long 

 journev from the usual haunts of his kind. 



