RARER BIRDS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 513 



are added to the list then given, four of which are entirely 

 new to the fauna of the State, and the others have not before 

 been fully established as occurring within it, though supposed 

 to from their known general distribution. Two, the Barn 

 Owl (Strix pratincola) and Varied Thrush (Turdus ncevius), 

 have only been previously given in Dr. Cones' Addenda to 

 his "List of the Birds of New England."* 



The latter occurs only as a straggler from the far interior 

 and western portions of the continent. Another now added, 

 the Baird's Finch (Centronix Bairdii], discovered by Mr. 

 C. J. Maynard at Ipswich (see notes beyond for farther 

 particulars), is another similar example equally remarkable, 

 it having been previously known only from near the mouth 

 of the Yellowstone River. A few errors in that Catalogue 

 are also now corrected, with the design of making that and 

 the present paper a fair exposition of the ornithological 

 fauna of the State, so far as it is at present known. Three 

 species f there included are now stricken out. Numerous 

 unrecorded instances of the capture of rare spoeimoas- within 

 the State are also chronicled, as also the breeding of a few 

 not before positively known to breed here. There are re- 

 marks also on a few species, for obvious reasons, that are not 

 to be regarded as among the rarer species of the State. 



The whole number of species of birds now known to 



occur in Massachusetts is three hundred. 



\ 



GERFALCON. Falco sacer Forster. (F. candicans et Is- 

 landicus Auct.) A specimen in the speckled plumage was 

 taken near Providence, R. I., by Mr. Newton Dexter, during 

 the winter of 1864 and 1865. Its occurrence so far south 

 appears to be wholly accidental. 



The suspicion many authors have had that the F. candi- 

 cans and F. Islandicus were but birds of the same species in 

 different states of plumage, my own examination of speci- 



* Proceedings of the Essex Institute, Vol. v, p. 312. 



t Archibuteo Sancti-Johannis, Helminthophaga Swainsonii, Quiscalus major. 



AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. III. 65 



