^'°' 19^10^"] General Notes. 457 



night of June 4 in Suffolk and the next morning reached the lake about 

 six A. M. It had rained heavily during the night and the clouds were still 

 black and threatening, and hardly had I pushed off from the pump house 

 landing before rain came down in torrents. Making the best of a bad 

 job, I again thoroughly worked the whole lake and its tributaries with the 

 following result: Two full sets of three eggs of 'virescens,' and two sets, 

 three each, of 'americana.' The moss is becoming more scarce each 

 year on the trees, the cause for which I cannot account, and whether or 

 not it is lack of building sites and material, or lack of insect food found in 

 the moss that keeps the birds away I cannot say. In 1893 there must 

 have been at least four or five hundred pairs of each ; where have they gone? 

 Have they followed the moss? I hear that the junipers in the Chicka- 

 hominy Swamp are still festooned with this moss. I hope next season to 

 investigate that locaUty for evidence of these birds. The nests of 'ameri- 

 cana' are located in the center of a clump of hanging moss, composed 

 of moss and lined with a little yellow or orange plant down. They are 

 extremely hard to locate unless the bunch of moss is placed between you 

 and the sky Une, when a dark clump or spot reveals its presence. 



The nest of 'virescens', composed of moss only, is always located on the 

 crotch of a limb, in a slight depression. The shrill whistle of the birds 

 soon disclose their whereabouts, and by watching them a few moments one 

 can locate the nest, as they invariably fly over it or to it. — H. H. Bailey, 

 Newport News, Va. 



An Albinistic White-throated Sparrow.— The spring migration of 

 this year brought to Mt. ^'ernon, Iowa, an albinistic specimen of striking 

 appearance and possibly rather more than usual interest. On Monday, 

 April 25, a bird-lover of the town reported to me over the telephone "a 

 large sparrow with a pure white head," the same having appeared on her 

 grounds the day before. I found it to be a White-throated Sparrow 

 {Zonotrichia albicolUs) among many of its own species. The whole head 

 and neck were white, with the exception of the yellow lores and a small 

 black patch on the crown not larger than a grain of rice. The boundary 

 line between the snowy white of the head and neck and the quite normal 

 markings of all the other areas was regular and abrupt. The iris appeared 

 normal. Although so conspicuously distinguished from its fellows the 

 albino showed no peculiarities in conduct. With others of its flock it 

 came under the windows for scattered seeds, where it fed without sus- 

 picion and during five days was frequently observed at a. distance of four 

 feet. The bird could not be collected without offense and presumably 

 left with the bulk of the first wave of White-throated Sparrows during the 

 night following April 28.— Charles R. Keyes, Mount Vernon, Iowa. 



Supposed Nesting of the Pine-woods and Bachman's Sparrows in 

 Chatham County, Georgia.— On the third of June, 1910, while collect- 

 ing in the northern part of the county I heard a note that was unfamiliar 



