84 Gcvcral Xofe,. [ A°k 



Vireo philadelphicus in Cambridge, Mass. — On the 27th of Septem- 

 ber, 1S94, a bov hrf)ii<j;ht in a Philadelphia N'ireo which he had just killed 

 in the museum grounds. Looking through 'The Auk,' and the Bulletin 

 of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, I find onlv three records for this bird 

 in Massachusetts, viz. : Cambridge, Sept. 7, 1875 ^- ^- O- C., I, 19), 

 Magnolia, Sept. 18, rS79 {id., V, 53), and Brookline, Sept. {id., VI, 56). 

 It seems likely that the vernal passage of this Vireo to its breeding places 

 in northern New England is made to the westward of Massachusetts — 

 perhaps up the Hudson River valley, where both the male and female 

 have been taken in May, at Troy, N. Y. ( B. N. O. C, V, 239). — Walter 

 Faxon, Museum of Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. 



The Prothonotary Warbler in Massachusetts. — Mr. J. W. Thompson 

 picked up on the morning of Sept. 15, 1S94, on the depot platform at 

 Mattapan Station, N. Y., N. IL, & II. R. R., a dead Prothonotary Warbler 

 {Proto?iotaria citreci). The damaged bill and breast showed plainly that 

 it met its death by striking against one of the inass of telegraph wires 

 that were hanging directly over the spot where it was found. — 

 M. Abbott Frazar, Bosfo/i, Mass. 



The Winter Wren a Night Singer. — In the long list of birds that 

 sing in the night I do not remember to have seen the name of the Winter 

 Wren. That it sometimes sings on clear wintry days during its tem- 

 porary sojourn in the vicinity of Philadelphia is probably well known to 

 certain favored people. A bird of this species has for several years inade 

 the fastnesses of a thick hemlock hedge in my yard at Haddonfield, N. J., 

 his winter home, and he sometimes favors me with a song in the early 

 morning, even when the ground is covered with snow. Not content with 

 this, he surprised me the other night, about ten o'clock, by one of his 

 sweetest efforts. The song on this occasion was not so loud as that 

 of more wakeful moments, but well-sustained for more than half the 

 usual diu-ation of the nuptial song, and then falling into a scarcely 

 audible trill, as if the little dreamer had waked in the midst of his 

 vision and, like more human sleepers, was reluctant to believe its unreal- 

 ity. — Sami'el N. Rmoads, Haddoiijicld, A', jf. 



A Belated Mockingbird in Eastern Massachusetts. — On Nov. 25, 1894, 

 I secured a male Mockingbird in good condition in a buckthorn hedge near 

 my house. The weather was rough, with squalls of snow, but not cold. 

 Previously, however, the thermometer had registered as low as 14*^, with 

 snow enough to make good sleighing. 



The 'escaped cage bird ' theory, which naturally occurs at once, does 

 not apply here (unless braced up with a supplementai-y theory that the 

 escape was remote enough to allow the bird to make himself over), the 

 phnnage and feet being in perfect condition. 



