2l8 General Notes. [^^^ 



and not homonyms due to the shuffling of names, or to the reclassification 

 of species under other genera than those under which thej were originally 

 described. In fact, any other construction never occurred to me prior to 

 Mr. Oberholser's discussion of the case of Sylvia cceriilea Wilson. 



In regard to the action of the Committee on this case, I must confess, 

 with shame, that I did not look up the matter, and did not know that 

 Latham's Sylvia ccenilea was simply Linnseus's Motacilla ccerulea, but 

 supposed Latham's Sylvia ccerulea was bestowed upon a species con- 

 sidered by him as not previously described. 



As I had never before known of any attempt to change a name in 

 ornithology on such grounds I was taken quite unawares, and voted for 

 the change without knowing the real facts in the case. Whether or not 

 the original change was an inadvertence on the part of Mr. Ridgway, he 

 has in other cases followed a directly opposite course. In the case of 

 the House Finch the Committee ruled (Tenth Suppl., Auk, July, 1901, 

 311) that Fringilla frofitalis Vieillot, 1817, did not render invalid Friti- 

 gilla frontalis Say, 1824, for the reason that Vieillot's Fringilla frontalis 

 was simply the reference of a previous Loxia frontalis to the genus Frin- 

 gilla. This case is perfectly parallel to that of Dendroica ccerulea vs. D. 

 rara, which has not heretofore been formally challenged, and thus has 

 not come before the Committee for reconsideration. — J. A. Allen, Atn. 

 Mtis. Nat. Hist., Nezv York City. 



A Late Fall Record for the Cape May Warbler {Dendroica tigrina) 

 in Eastern Massachusetts. — Toward dusk of Oct. 9, 1902, at the time 

 when smaller biids are actively moving about, I noticed a few restless 

 warblers in a Norway maple near my home in Ponkapog, Mass. It was 

 impossible for me to determine the species, as they remained near the top 

 of the tree, but one bird was shot, and proved an immature female Cape 

 May Warbler. I am not positive as to the identity of the other birds in 

 this group, but one other bird which I saw was not Defidroica tigrina. — 

 Fred. B. McKechnie, Boston, Mass. 



Late Records for Eastern Massachusetts. — Mr. Louis A. Shaw of 

 Chestnut Hill, Mass., informs ine that he shot on the 20th of November, 

 1902, an adult male Wilson's Warbler ( Wilsonia piisilla)., which he had 

 first noted on the previous day. This is the second record of the capture 

 of this warbler in late autumn in Massachusetts (Hoffmann, Auk, 1900, 

 p. 196). Mr. Shaw also reports seeing Fox Sparrows {Passerella iliaca) 

 on December 4, 1902, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (Regulus calendula) 

 on November 16, 1902. — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., Concord, Mass. 



A Case of Mistaken Diagnosis. — In August, 18S2, while searching in 

 an ancient shell-heap near Northeast Harbor, Mt. Desert Island, Maine, I 

 found what appeared to be the upper mandible of a bird's bill. In the 

 same shell-heap, two years before, I had found part of the tarsus of a 



