2IA General Nofes. [April 



had shot June 25, 18S0, in Grant County in the west-central part of Min- 

 nesota. Mr. Eager regarded the bird as not uncommon in that locality, 

 but Mr. Benner and myself failed to find it during two weeks collecting in 

 the same County in 1S79. Dr. Wm. L. Abbott includes this species with- 

 out comment in a list of birds ('Forest and Stream, 'Jan. 15, 1880) taken in 

 July, 1S79, at Pembina, N. D., which is in the Red River Valley close to 

 the extreme northwestern corner of Minnesota. 



Spizella pusilla. Field Sparrow. — Though long familiar with the 

 characteristic song and habits of this bird through an acquaintance 

 formed in the East, I have, in an experience of fifteen years in many parts 

 of the State lying north of the latitude of Minneapolis, been enabled to de- 

 tect it with certainty in only one locality — northern Ramsey County. 

 Here I obtained the first specimen June 24, 1884. On visiting in June, 

 18S9, the same locality, which is an extensive tract of uncultivated sandy 

 country covered with a scattered growth of 'black' and bur oaks of small 

 size, I found the birds fairly common, and shot six of the many heard 

 and seen. Of these seven specimens, one, the bird taken June 24, 18S4, is 

 a large light-colored male which Dr. C. Hart Merriam, who kindly exam- 

 ined the series for me, states is nearer arenacea than pusilla. While the 

 other six specimens are somewhat lighter in general coloration than are typ- 

 ical eastern pusilla-, and in three or four instances show conspicuous gray 

 feathers on the crown, still on the whole they are much nearer the eastern 

 form. Dr. Merriam remarks upon the singular fact of the occurrence of 

 these two forms in the same locality. The Field Sparrow is reported 

 rom Lanesboro. Fillmore County, in the southeastern part of the State, in 

 the springs of 1SS4 and 1885 ('Report on Bird Migration in the Mississippi 

 Valley in the years 1SS4 and 1SS5', p. 202) and in a manuscript list of the 

 birds of that locality, prepared by Dr. Hvoslef and temporarily in the 

 hands of the writer through the courtesy of Dr. Merriam, it is noted as an 

 "abundant summer resident." E. E. Thompson reports it as breeding 

 in western Manitoba ('The Auk,' Vol. Ill, p. 324). There must be vast 

 areas of intervening country where the species is sparingly distributed or 

 does not occur at all. 



Helminthophila pinus. Blue-winged Yellow Warbler. — May 17, 

 1S80, I shot a male bird at Minnehaha Falls near Minneapolis. The skin 

 is now in my collection. This Warbler is undoubtedly rare here, and this 

 is probably very near the limit of its northward migration. Dr. Hvoslef 

 speaks of it as a rare migrant at Lanesboro, Fillmore Co., and records its 

 occurrence in August. "Aug. 28, '87, shot 2." — Hvoslef. — Thos. L. 

 Roberts, Minneapolis, Minn. 



Note on Pacific Coast Birds. — I wish to call the attention of all or- 

 nithologists, to a circumstance that has never been sufficiently explained 

 and may therefore cause misunderstanding in reference to my statement 

 given in the 'Ornithology of California.' In 'The Auk' for Jan., 1890, I 

 am quoted on p. 24 as saying that the eggs of Pipilo fuscus mesoleucus 

 resemble those cf P.fuscus. The facts are that I never saw the bird 



