vol. xxviii] General Notes. 369 



I think I made my best take in many a long day, in the shape of a magni- 

 ficent male Troupial (Icterus icterus). The entire plumage is perfection, 

 not a feather in tail or wings being frayed in the slightest, while the feet 

 are in perfect shape. For these reasons I do not think it can possibly be 

 a cage bird. It was in company with a large flock of Western Tanagers 

 (Piranga ludoviciana) and Bullock's Orioles (Icterus bullocki) that were 

 migrating through the upper part of Mission Canon, one of the wildest 

 localities near Santa Barbara. It was in good condition and seemed per- 

 fectly at home, the stomach being crammed with small green canker 

 worms. 



The plot in the Troupial situation is thickening. Yesterday (May 3) 

 I remembered that a friend asked me some three weeks ago to tell him 

 what some birds were that he described as being " about the size of a 

 Meadowlark, but with a long black tail, black head, and a stripe around 

 its back like a Holstein cow." I could not imagine what they could be 

 and told him he must have been mistaken, although he is a good observer 

 and has painted a number of birds very creditably. Yesterday, as I say, 

 I remembered it and asked him to look over my birds and see if he could 

 place it. He picked out the Troupial without hesitation, saying he would 

 have known it anywhere by the stripe of yellow over the upper back, 

 which, as he said, reminded him of a Holstein cow. 



It would have been about the first week in April that he saw them, and 

 three of them were together. This looks a good deal as if we had a small 

 flight of Icterus icterus here at Santa Barbara this spring and, to my mind, 

 quite eliminates the possibility of a cage bird theory. — J. H. Bowles, 

 Santa Barbara, Cal. 



The Western Evening Grosbeak in Denver, Colorado. — The 



undersigned has to report the occurrence of two individuals of this species 

 (Hesperiphona vespertina) in Cheeseman Park, Denver, Colo., on April 

 12, 1911, one having been secured, which proved to be a male. Three 

 others were seen in the same locality on April 20, 1911. This Park is on 

 the eastern edge of the city, about two and one half miles from its center. 

 Both these dates are comparatively late ones for this species so far from 

 the higher mountain regions, though Thorne recorded it as having occurred 

 at Fort Lyons, Colorado, on May 11, which is nearly one hundred miles 

 eastward on the Plains. — W. H. Bergtold, Denver, Colo. 



An Unusual Occurrence of the Pine Grosbeak in Rhode Island. — 



Visitations of the Pine Grosbeak (Pinicola enucleator leucura) into southern 

 New England and the Middle Atlantic States have been probably more 

 widespread during the past winter than at any other time since the severely 

 cold season of 1903-0-4. In view of this fact the remarkably late north- 

 ward flight of a flock of Grosbeaks observed at Providence, R. I., may he 

 of special interest. Early in the morning of April 28, 1911, I saw fourteen 

 Pine Grosbeaks on Neutaconkanut Hill, Providence. Several were sitting 



