Vol i907" IV l Swales & Taverner, Birds of Southeastern Michigan. 145 



Loxia leucoptera. White-winged Crossbill. — Records of 

 the White-winged Crossbill in southeastern Michigan are few and 

 far between. Jas. B. Purdy records (Cook, Bds. of Mich., 1893, 

 p. 108) that he secured a pair at Plymouth but gives no further 

 data. During the past fall the species seems to have been generally 

 distributed over southern Ontario, and on November 8 Mr. Swales 

 found a small flock on Belle Isle, in the Detroit River opposite 

 the city. These birds, two of which were males, were feeding on 

 the ground on the edge of the woods and were very tame. Novem- 

 ber 13, we received a male from Point Pelee. The species seems 

 to have been common at London since early November but we 

 can get no satisfactory evidence of its appearance in the State west 

 of us. 



Coturniculus savannarum passerinus. Savanna Sparrow. — 

 In 'The Auk,' XXII, p. 89, Mr. Taverner recorded the breeding 

 of the Savanna Sparrow in the meadows of St. Clair Co., on the 

 edge of the Flats. In 'The Auk/ XXIV, p. 97, appears what is 

 evidently an oblique criticism of the same. It may be well, under 

 these circumstances, to enlarge upon the previous record and give 

 the facts of the case as they occurred. We do not for a minute 

 admit that the occurrence of an individual or a pair in the breeding 

 season warrants the conclusion that they are breeding, when found 

 outside their known range, but the reader can judge of the following 

 facts. In these rather damp meadows we found the Savanna 

 Sparrows in considerable numbers throughout the spring and 

 summer. Those taken had the skin of the abdomen thickened 

 and all other indications of being breeders. The nests were not 

 looked for, as we deemed their occurrence in numbers throughout 

 the breeding season was evidence enough, especially as Taverner 

 had already found them regular breeders at Port Huron, a few 

 miles north, and W. E. Saunders had reported them as common 

 on the opposite side of the Flats. We thought it nothing strange 

 that they should breed here, and published the fact merely as a 

 matter of record. Since then we have invariably found them in 

 the same numbers in the same place during the full spring and 

 summer months. We think the evidence is perfectly satisfactory, 

 far more so, in fact, than that of the breeding of the Black-throated 

 Blue Warbler (Auk, XVII, p. 390). 



