^°S95^'] General Notes. ^09 



This locality, which is in the northern part of Middlesex County, 

 hardly six miles south of the New Hampshire boundary, is the most 

 northern point in New England where the Mockingbird has yet been 

 known to breed, and the only one in Massachusetts, east of Springfield, 

 where its nest actually has been taken. The only other recorded evidence 

 I can find of the breeding of the species in eastern Massachusetts is based 

 on two families of well-grown young, found, one at Arlington (Auk, I, 

 192), the other atMarshfield (O. & O. XIV, 144). In each of these cases 

 the birds were not discovered until August 15, although it seems probable 

 that they had been bred in the neighborhood. — Charles F. Batchel- 

 DER, Cambridge, Mass. 



More Wyoming Mockingbirds. — In 'The Auk' for July 1S94 (XI, p. 

 258) will be found a short account of the capture of three Mockingbirds 

 {Mimus polyglottos') along Crow Creek about two miles east of Chey- 

 enne. The first capture was made on May 10, the second on the nth and 

 the third on the 23d. I did not anticipate at the time that I would ever 

 have a similar experience here, for I had collected birds at this point 

 during the previous twelve years and had never found a Mocker before. 

 On May 19, 1S95, I found two Mockingbirds along Crow Creek six miles 

 M-est of Cheyenne. Not having a gun along I had to content myself with 

 watching the birds and in listening to the song of the one with the larger 

 wing patches. These two birds were comparatively tame for I ap- 

 proached to within thirty yards, at which distance they scarcely noticed 

 me. 



To-day, May 26, I visited the locality two miles east of town where I 

 made the capture in 1894. I was again fortunate for I flushed a female 

 Mockingbird (^Mimiis polyglottos) from the same cottonwood copse in 

 which I killed No. 3 on May 23, last year. After a half hour's stern chase 

 I bagged my bird not a hundred yards from the point where the other 

 bird fell. 



I hardly know what conclusion to draw from the presence of these 

 birds in Wyoming. Dr. Mortimer Jesurun wrote me that he captured 

 one specimen at Douglas, one hundred and fifty miles north of Cheyenne, 

 last year. It is more than probable that considerable numbers of Mock- 

 ingbirds, both during the present spring and in 1894, visited Wyoming 

 and probably raised broods here. — Frank Bond, Cheyenne, Wyo. 



Absence of the Bluebird at Meadville, Pa. — For the first time in my 

 recollection Sialia sialis is noticeable for its absence, in the vicinity of 

 Meadville, Cra\vford Co., Pa., for this time of the year. In referring to 

 my note book, I find that I have observed them in this locality, every 

 month in the year, with the exception of the month of December, in more 

 or less numbers, they beyig very common during the spring, summer, and 

 fall months. But their soft warbling notes are not to be heard this spring 

 among those of many other happy songsters. The first that I observed 



