1890.J Genera/ A'v/et 



409 



palnstris), in the Fresh Pond Marshes, Cambridge, several weeks after 

 the migration of this species was supposed to be over. One of them was 

 in full song. I again came upon one of them, Nov. 8, near the same place, 

 and, on examining the close cover formed by the dried and matted cat- 

 tail flags, I began to suspect that a few of these birds might winter there. 

 I again met with one on three successive days in December (Dec. 8, 9 and 

 10) in another part of the same marshes. These days were warm for the 

 season, although the marshes had been frozen over, and the brave little 

 bird was still singing with almost as much ardor as in spring. I next saw 

 the Wren on January 2 and 3, 1890. Wondering whether its presence here 

 in midwinter was an accident or no. 1 bethought myself of another similar 

 cat-tail swamp in Arlington, near the Medford line, and a visit to this 

 place on January 7 was rewarded by the rinding of a Long-billed Marsh 

 Wren there also. This bird I shot on the 13th of January. It proved to 

 be a male — fat and in fine plumage. Its stomach was still filled with the 

 remains of coleopterous larvae. The bird was again seen in the Fresh Pond 

 marshes on the morning of March 4, when my thermometer registered 

 4" F. and about a foot of snow lav on the ground. 



I believe that the Long-billed Marsh Wren has not hitherto been found 

 wintering in the East further north than the Carolinas, but the western race 

 (C /. paludicola) is said by Cooper (Geol. Surv. Cain. Orn., I, 75) to 

 winter on the Pacific coast as far north as the Columbia River, in marshes 

 overgrown with tuU (Scirpus palustris). Dr. Merrill (Auk, V, 362) also 

 observed that a few passed the winter at Fort Klamath, Oregon, where 

 the winters must be very severe. The rdle of the tide is played in the East 

 by the cat-tail flags {Typha latifolia and T. angustifolia). 



On January 31, 1S90, I shot a young male Maryland Yellowthroat 

 (Geothlypis Iric/tas), in the Fresh Pond swamps. Cambridge. When 

 found he was in the company of White-throated, Swam]), Song, and Tree 

 Sparrows, sticking closely to the tall weeds and dense shrubbery, under 

 which he would run about on the ice, leaving the imprint of his delicate 

 little feet on the thin coat of snow. He was in beautiful plumage, and 

 plump, although the mercury within a week had fallen to 5' F. (prob- 

 ably lower in the swamp). Cf. Auk, I, 3S9. 



On the same day (Jan. 31) I found a dead Nashville Warbler {Helmiu- 

 thophila ruficapilla), in Swampscott, Mass., with its neck broken and 

 wedged between two twigs of a barberry bush — clearly the work of a 

 Shrike. Mr. Brewster, who now has the bird's skin, was sure that it could 

 not have been dead over two weeks. In the stomach were many land 

 snail shells, 1.5 mm. long, belonging to the genus Pupa. 



The Great Blue Heron {Ardea herodias) is a bird that rarely favors us 

 with his presence in the winter months. It may be worth while, then, 

 to ehronicle the capture of one in the Arnold Arboretum, West Roxbury. 

 Mass., either December 31, 1889, or January 1, 1S90. A tub of water 

 stocked with minnows served to keep him alive for five or six days, when 

 he suddenly died either from cold or the enervating effects of imprison- 

 ment. His body afterwards came into my possession. A previous record 



