270 General Notes. [ A A p ^ 



presence of these Mockingbirds. The fact that they were a breeding 

 pair, however, suggests deliberate migration and so late in the season as 

 to derive no guidance from the normal spring movement. This idea is 

 suggested by the breeding Dickcissels that I have found here. One after- 

 noon, in early June, 1899, I searched some ten acres of neglected land that 

 had been my favorite collecting grounds in 1890. There were few, if any, 

 Dickcissels present for I saw none. This was on P. C. 405 and within the 

 present city limits of Detroit. I happened to be in the neighborhood on 

 July 30 and was at once attracted to this field by the songs of about a 

 dozen males and later estimated the colony to consist of fifteen pairs. They 

 never returned to that locality and, with the exception of one bird in 

 Monguagon Township and two in Fairview Village in 1904, none were seen 

 until 1906. Practically all my spare time in 1906 was devoted to a portion 

 of Grosse Pointe Farms and Township and probably the male noted June 

 10 was the first arrival, and the first female was seen June 24. Three nude 

 young in the nest were located July 29, and a female was flushed from her 

 three eggs August 5. In 1907 I first visited this locality June 30 but found 

 only one pair and their nest containing two fresh eggs. Three additional 

 pairs were present July 7, which was my last visit until 1909-10 when not 

 a bird could be found there nor anywhere in the county. 



On consulting available data regarding Mockingbirds breeding north of 

 their normal range I find that from one to several pairs would nest in some 

 locality for a season or two and then disappear, exactly as did the two 

 above colonies of Dickcissels, which seems to place both species here in 

 the class of irregular invaders. Time will probably show that the present 

 occurrences of Mockingbirds in the north are efforts in the direction of 

 permanent summer residence. Last summer was unusually dry and warm 

 here and our local pair may have traveled the whole distance through 

 conditions not materially different from those in their normal range. — 

 J. Claire Wood, Detroit, Mich. 



Townsend's Solitaire in Eastern South Dakota. — A specimen of 

 Myadestes townsendi was closely observed at Vermillion, extreme south- 

 eastern South Dakota, on January 9, 1911. Having observed this species 

 at several localities, from Alaska to Arizona, I have not the slightest doubt 

 as to the identification. This species breeds sparingly in the Black Hills, 

 and this individual may have been driven here by a severe west wind which 

 prevailed during the first week of the month. — Stephen Sargent Visher, 

 State University, Vermillion, S. D. 



A Remarkable Number of Robins in Maine in Winter. — The winter 

 of 1910-1911 was rather steadily cold in southern Maine. December 

 and January brought little snow, and the ground was bare most of the time 

 during those months; but in February much snow fell. Nearly if not quite 

 throughout the season there were many more Robins in Portland and its 



