400 General Notes. [july 



Choucalcyon therefore falls as an absolute synonym of Dacelo (type by 

 monotypy D. gigas). — W. DeW. Miller, Amer. Museum of Natural 

 History, New York City. 



The Bobolink breeding in Southeastern Pennsylvania. — The west- 

 ern side of the Delaware in southeastern Pennsylvania is flanked by the 

 "Uplands" which rise from the Coastal Plain along the 100 foot contour. 

 These Uplands reach westward to the Blue Ridge, one hundred miles away 

 — a well-watered, rolling country of low hills and mature valley streams. 

 The land is one of farms — wheat, corn, meadow pasture and grassland. 

 At my home at Cheyney, on the border of Delaware and Chester Counties, 

 a typical rural district, I have often seen and heard the Bobolink for a few 

 days during its northward passage in May. This year (1914) several 

 pairs have remained and are nesting in a wide field of clover just back of 

 my house. I hear the tumultuous song of the birds throughout these 

 early summer days and see the male perched on tree tops, wheeUng and 

 hovering over the field and dropping into the grass, all the while voluble 

 and ecstatic as the BoboUnk always is at this season. There appear to 

 be several pairs, but I have made an indifferent search for nests and have 

 not as yet found one. The birds, however, have been with us for the past 

 three weeks and every day this gladsome voice is a continual delight. 



I have never understood just why the Bobolink did not remain with us 

 when clover and meadow grass were so alluring. They are here this year 

 and I, for one, am glad of this added touch of more northern summers. — 

 Spencer Trotter, " Pennyscroft," Cheyney, Penna. 



Evening Grosbeaks in Pennsylvania. — In February last a flock of 

 about 400 Evening Grosbeaks (Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina) re- 

 mained for some days about Lewisburg, Union Co., Pa. Smaller flocks 

 were also observed during periods of deep snow in Lycoming and Bedford 

 Counties and some specimens secured. — B. H. Warren, Everhart Museum, 

 Scranton, Pa. 



Nuttall's Sparrow {Zonotrichia leucophrys nuttalli) wintering in 

 King Co., Wash. — For the last two years, a pair of Nuttall's Sparrows 

 have spent the winter about our garden. Noticing them for the first time, 

 during the late Autumn of 1912, and thinking it an unusual occurrence, I 

 made an entry of it in my note-book. At the end of a week, I was greatly 

 surprised to find them stiU frequenting the shrubbery, as I had thought 

 them to be merely stopping for a rest, on their journey southward. As 

 the weather was steadily becoming colder, so much so that a fight snow fell, 

 I was able to encourage them by feeding. In consequence they became 

 fairly tame, and seemed quite content to remain. 



Early, the following spring, I noticed that they were building in an ivy- 

 covered house on the lawn. Two broods of young were raised, the parents 

 becoming exceedingly tame at this time. The entire family remained 



