8o General Notes. [ ," n . 



Unfortunately both of the young were still principally in the olive, 

 downy plumage of nestlings, but enough of the final feathering had 

 appeared on the throat, breast, and upper parts to make it certain that 

 one, and probable that the other, would have become a typical specimen 

 of H. fitius. The wing-bars of the young differ, being in the most mature 

 specimen narrow and almost white, and in the other broader and light 

 yellow. The plumage of the young would seem to indicate that the 

 missing parent was an H. fiinus. 



These specimens, I think, tend to confirm the theory of Mr. Ridgway 

 that H. leucobronckialis is not a valid species, but merely a leucochroic 

 phase of//, pinus. — Louis B. Bishop, M. D., New Haven, Conn. 



Sprague's Pipit (Antkus spragtteii) on the Coast of South Carolina. — The 



capture of this far western species was the good fortune of the writer on 

 the morning of November 24, 1893. I had taken advantage of the spring- 

 tide to secure some Scott's Sparrows (Ammod ramus ma ritimns peninsula), 

 and upon going over a cyclone-swept cotton field en route to the marshes, 

 I noticed a bird that resembled the Titlark (Ant/ins pensilvantcus) , but 

 observed that it did not wag its tail. I knew at once what it was — a western 

 prize, and I at once shot it. The bird is an adult male in very fine unworn 

 plumage, and was vevy fat. The exact locality was nine miles from Mount 

 Pleasant, and two miles from the ocean. As far as I am aware this is the 

 first eastern record for this species. — Arthur T. Wayne, Mount Pleasant . 

 South Carolina. 



Remarks on the Nest of Cistothorus palustris. — The nest of the Long- 

 billed Marsh Wren is too well known to ornithologists generally to need 

 description, but the only explanation of its globular form, which I can 

 find, is that given by Wilson, who states : "A small hole is left two-thirds 

 up, for entrance, the upper edge of which projects like a pent-house over 

 the lower, to prevent the admission of rain." The inference from this 

 and similar statements of later writers would be that the roof is built to 

 protect the eggs from the rain. This may be partially true, but it seems 

 strange that a species nesting at a season when violent rain-storms are 

 least frequent should need a protection, which birds breeding earlier in the 

 spring do not require. 



But there is another danger to which the eggs of C. palustris are pecu- 

 liarly liable, both from the character of the country in which they breed 

 and the slenderness of the reeds which support the nest. This is the 

 wind, which, sweeping across the exposed marshes of this Wren's 

 summer home, often levels the rushes with the ground. I have found the 

 reeds growing in the Quinnipiack Marshes near New Haven, Conn., 

 where large numbers of this species breed, leveled in this manner, and the 

 attached nests turned almost at right angles to their original position. It 

 is evident that under such conditions the eggs in an uncovered nest would 

 fall out and be destroyed, while in many of these nests, which had the 



