-346 General Notes. [£g 



collection of the Lynn Natural History Society. As there is no other 

 record of this bird for the State, and as I was unable to find this specimen 

 in a recent examination of the battered remains of this collection, I have 

 omitted the bird from the list." 



This Kentucky Warbler at Wellesley Hills would seem, therefore, to 

 be the first authentic record of the species within the State. 



In ' A Review of the Birds of Connecticut ' by Mr. C. Hart Merriam, 1877, 

 two records of Kentucky Warbler within that State are given, namely: 

 "Mr. Erwin I. Shores obtained a male of this species at Suffield, Conn., 

 Aug. 16, 1876, thus adding another bird, not only to the Avifauna of 

 Connecticut, but also to New England"; and "I learn from Mr. J. G. Ely 

 of Lyme, Conn., that he has shot one Kentucky Warbler." Dr. Jonathan 

 Dwight, Jr., in 'The Auk,' Vol. XX, October, 1903, under the heading, 

 'Some New Records for Nova Scotia,' based on a small lot of bird skins 

 sent to him from Sable Island by Mr. .las. McL. Boutcher, furnishes this 

 note on Kentucky Warbler: "A young male taken September 1, 1902, 

 is in first winter plumage as determined by softening the skin and exami- 

 ning the bones. The nearest point at which the species regularly breeds 

 is New Jersey." — Horace W. Wright, Boston, Mass. 



Many Eyes are Better than One Pair. — Ornithologists from all over the 

 United States and Canada are sending each year to the Bureau of Biological 

 Survey their observations on the arrival of the birds. Some of these 

 reports are merely incidental notes taken while performing the daily rou- 

 tine tasks; others represent a large amount of time and frequent special 

 trips taken to fields and woods. The question continually arises, How 

 nearly do the better grade of these reports represent the actual date of 

 the earliest arrivals? If more time was spent in the fields by the observer, 

 or if several persons worked carefully and completely a limited locality, 

 how much earlier would be the dates of arrival? To find an answer 

 to these questions was the problem before me the past spring. I began 

 my excursions with the opening of the season, and as spring advanced, 

 my trips became more frequent until during the three weeks of the height 

 of migration they were almost daily. They were extended in all direc- 

 tions around Washington and were planned to cover the various kinds of 

 country. As a result I saw more different species of birds than during 

 any previous spring, including several of the rarest birds of this region. 



The Audubon Society of the District of Columbia is in a flourishing 

 condition. It holds several field meetings each year; the members have 

 had access to a good selection of skins of local species and many of the 

 members have become well acquainted with the avifauna of the District. 

 In addition to the regular field days of the Society, this spring several 

 of the more expert bird observers made many extra trips into the woods, 

 and some of the most enthusiastic spent a large part of their time in hunt- 

 ing for new arrivals. These all reported to me the new birds they saw 



