252 General Notes. lApril 



This is the first definite pubKshed notice of the White-winged Crossbill 

 in the District of Columbia, and the only other satisfactory record of the 

 species in the District is that of Mr. James H. Fleming, of Toronto, Canada, 

 who saw one in the grounds of the Department of Agriculture in November, 

 1906 (Richmond MSS). 



Mr. Jouy included the species in his 'Catalogue of the Birds of the 

 District of Columbia' ^ but this was nothing more than a nominal Ust and 

 the basis for the inclusion of the bird does not appear. 



There are other records of the species in papers on the ornithology of the 

 District and vicinity, but they are all of birds seen or taken in adjacent 

 portions of Maryland. The authors of 'Avifauna Columbiana' ^ say: 

 "We said of these species (Loxia curvirostra minor and Loxia leucoplera) 

 in the original edition that both undoubtedly sometimes make their appear- 

 ance in severe winters, though we had not been able to ascertain the fact 

 with certainty. It has since been estabUshed, and both the Crossbills 

 have been introduced as stragglers in Mr. Jouy's catalogue. Mr. William 

 Palmer states in a note addressed to us: .... 'I have myself never seen the 

 White-winged Crossbill here, but Mr. Henry Marshall has specimens which 

 he shot at Laurel, Md., about eight years ago, probably 1874, since which 

 time he has seen none.' " 



One is said to have been taken about 1864 by Mr. Drexler, but there 

 is no certainty that this was in the District. Mr. Oldys' records one 

 as having been accidentally killed on August 12, 1907, at Oxon Hill, Md., 

 about four or five miles southeast of Washington.^ Prof. Cooke adds 

 nothing to the foregoing in his 'Bird Migration in the District of Colum- 

 bia,' * and Dr. Richmond's inclusion of the species in his 'List of Birds 

 Found in the District of Columbia," published in Mrs. Majmard's 'Birds 

 of Washington' is based upon no additional records. — R. W. Williams, 

 Takoma Park, Md. 



Unusual Nesting Site of the English Sparrow. — As the English 

 Sparrow (Passer domesticus) wiU cheerfully nest in almost any situation, 

 unusual nesting sites would seem to be almost an impossibiUty, but never- 

 theless I think that the following should be put in that class. Near my 

 home during the summer of 1909, between Westerly and Watch HiU, R. I., 

 there was an artificial ice plant. In the outside sheathing of this building 

 was cut an opening through which ran a steam exhaust pipe, and as the 

 hole was cut a little large, there was a handy entrance to the interstices 

 of the wall, about an inch and a half square. On July tenth I discovered 

 that a pair of English Sparrows had a nest full of large young in this retreat. 

 Upon investigation I found that the pipe was hot enough to blister one's 



> Field and Forest, II, 155, March 1877. 



'Bulletin No. 26, U. S. Nat. Museum, 2nd. Ed., 1883. 



•Auli, XXIV. 442. 



♦Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, XXI, 115, April, 1918. 



