192 General Notes. [^% 



by Dr. Wm. de la Barre of Minneapolis. The locality is in the extreme 

 western part of Minnesota close to the Dakota line and lies within the 

 Coteaux region of the State where the fauna and flora are strongly colored 

 by species and subspecies characteristic of the plains region farther west. 

 The specimen is now No. 3484 in the collection of the Minnesota Natural 

 History Survey. It was recently examined by Dr. A. K. Fisher and the 

 identification verified. As far as known this is the first well authenticated 

 record of the occurrence of this species in Minnesota, the only previous 

 record being by G. G. Cantwell (O. & O., Vol. XVI, Oct., 1891, p. 157) 

 reporting the somewhat doubtful and unverified capture of a specimen in 

 the winter of 1890-91 in Swift County, western Minnesota. — Thos. S. 

 Roberts, Minneapolis, Minn. 



Agelaius phoeniceus fortis in Louisiana. — In a series of six Redwings 

 taken at Belcher, Louisiana, February 4, 1908, was one specimen ( 9 ) 

 referable to this subspecies — the others being A. p. phoeniceus. This is 

 the first record of the Giant Redwing in the State. The specimen in ques- 

 tion was originally recorded 1 as A. p. arctolegus on the authority of H. C. 

 Oberholser who, after going over the whole group again in greater detail, 

 now decides that this bird should be referred to fortis. — Arthur H. 

 Howell, Washington, D. C. 



Pine Siskins and Winter Bobolinks. — The water front of Private 

 Claims 120 and 321, City of Detroit, is a point of land reaching out into 

 Lake St. Clair. The shore is lined with summer cottages behind which is 

 a belt of weed-grown solid ground, about 100 yards in width, and then a 

 marsh belt, about as wide, which brings you to the solid mainland. Be- 

 tween the marsh and mainland is a canal, the excavation from which 

 forms an embankment some seven feet high with a row of Lombard pop- 

 lars on the top. Near the westerly end the embankment runs out into the 

 marsh and thence, at right angles, returns to the mainland leaving a strip 

 of marsh, 20 X 100 yards, between the embankment and mainland that 

 affords ample shelter from the lake winds and a food supply for the seed- 

 eaters in the abundance of weeds growing along the sloping embankment. 

 A number of times, during the last eighteen years, I have seen small flocks 

 of Pine Siskins (Spinus pinus) migrating northward in this vicinity during 

 March. It was not until the autumn of 1908 that I decided to secure a 

 specimen and directed my attention to this point as the most promising 

 locality. November 8 was the date set for the first visit and a better 

 could not have been selected. Mr. Herbert H. Spicer and the writer spent 

 two hours on the embankment opposite the piece of sheltered marsh and 

 directly on the flight line of the Pine Siskins. They came from about 

 25 degrees east of north in flocks of from three to a hundred or more indi- 



1 Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, XXI, p. 121, 1908. Of the identity of the specimen 

 of arctolegus recorded from Natchitoches there is no question. 





