f^ 3 X ] General Notes. gj 



May, 1875, and two specimens noted by Mr. E. P. Bicknell at River- 

 dale, N. Y., October, 1876. Mr. W. E. Treat 1 records a specimen at East 

 Hartford Conn., May, 1888, and Mr. Win. Brewster 2 speaks of a number 

 of other records from New England. 



On October 12, 1892, at Flatbush, King's Co., New York, I shot a 

 young male. It was in a hedge-row in company with great numbers of 

 Myrtle Warblers, White-throated Sparrows, and a few other species. My 

 brother and I were driving these birds along the hedge, watching for 

 anything rare, and most of them were very alert and continued their 

 flight at every motion we made. This bird, however, was sitting quietly 

 on a bush, and was at once shot. 



Turdus aliciae bicknelli. — I shot two Bicknell's Thrushes on Oct. 5, 

 1892, at Rockaway Beach. They were not together, but at widely sepa- 

 rated parts of the Beach. I found them exceedingly shv, and it was only 

 after much watching and pursuing of all the Thrushes that were noticed 

 that I secured them. Many Thrushes were observed, but no others of 

 any species were identified, for the cedars which grow on the Beach, and 

 the tangled thickets of briers, afford excellent concealment to ground- 

 loving birds, and in these spots they remained despite our most persistent 

 efforts to drslodge them. Hence it seems probable that some of these 

 others also were T. a. bicknelli and that there was a small migration of 

 them at that time. 



I have already noted 3 the capture of this bird at Rockaway Beach on 

 Oct. 5, 1889, and may mention the following cases of its occurrence in 

 this region. Mr. Wm. Dutcher writes. — "My Long Island records of 

 bicknelli are as follows : Oct. 1, 1881, two, Shinnecock Light; Oct. 23, 

 1886, one, shot at Astoria; Sept. 23, 1S87, one or more, Fire Island 

 Light; Sept. 18, 1889, one, Shinnecock Light. I believe them to be a 

 regular migrant but not nearly so abundant as alicics." Mr. L. S. Foster 

 writes me that he has three skins of this bird taken at the Statue of 

 Liberty, New York Harbor, one Sept. 18-19, 1889, the others Oct. 11-12, 

 1891. I believe with Mr. Dutcher that this subspecies is a regular, though 

 uncommon migrant. — Arthur H. Howell, Brooklyn, N. T. 



Rare Birds near Washington, D. C. — The spring migration, which is 

 reasonably productive here about once in every four years, was remark- 

 ably so in 1892, in the number of rare and desirable birds it brought to 

 local collectors. For the first three of the following records I am indebted 

 to Mr. Frederick Zeller, a professional gunner, whose almost constant 

 presence on the marshes, and excellent knowledge of local birds, enables 

 him to detect and capture new or uncommon species in the District. 



Tantalus loculator. — On July 2 Mr. Zeller brought me two females, 

 adult and young. They were killed on the flats a short distance from the 

 Washington Monument, and on the Maryland side of the Potomac. This 

 is the first record of the species here in seventy-five years. According to 



' Auk, V, 323. 3 O. & O., XV, 170, 



2 B. N. O. C, I, 94, 95, and Auk, III, 278. « Auk, III, 443, 



