General Notes. 189 



ous south of Camp Grant in Arizona, and says tliat in its notes and habits 

 it hears a dose resenibhim-e to the Son<? Sparrows. This appears to be its 

 first known occurrence east of Southwestern New Mexico. For an oppor- 

 tunity of examining one of the above-mentioned Texas specimens, and 

 for the data respecting their capture, I am indebted to Mr, Ragsdale. — 

 J. A. Allen, Cambridge, Mass. 



Early Nesting of the Shore Lark near Indianapolis, Ind. — The 

 Shore Lark is well known as being a bird that rears its first brood of 

 young very early in the season, but the following places the record nearly 

 a month earlier than any before known to me. Professor David S. Jordan 

 writes, under date of April 24, 1878: "Professor Brayton shot here (near 

 Indianapolis, Ind.) this morning a number of Shore Larks (^Eremophila 

 alpestris), and among them were two young birds, about grown. The 

 bird usually remains here most or all of the summer, but I never knew 

 of their breeding so early." — J. A. Allen, Cambridge, Mass. 



Breeding of the Shore Lark in Western New York. — My atten- 

 tion has been drawn to John M. Howey's note in the January number of 

 the Bulletin (Vol. Ill, p. 40), on the breeding of the Shore Lark {Eremo- 

 phila alpestris) in Yfestern New York. For the past two years this bird 

 has been quite common in our locality, and on June 6, 1876, it was my 

 good fortune to find a nest and eggs of this species. The nest was placed 

 on the ground in nursery rows of young apple-trees, and was composed 

 of dried grasses very loosely put together. It contained four eggs, which 

 were blown with difficulty, the embryo being about one third developed. 

 During the past season several pairs remained with us all summer, l)ut I 

 was unable to find their nests. — H. T. Jones, Rochester, N. Y. 



Red-headed Woodpecker eating Grasshoppers. — Much has been 

 said in relation to the change in the habits of the Red-headed Woodpecker, 

 and the fact that he has been compelled, by the intrusion of other birds, 

 to such ordinary insects, instead of those which inhabit the outside and 

 inside of trees, has been noted by man}'' observers. During the summer 

 of 1877 I saw one on the prairie, half a mile from the timber, very intently 

 bent upon catching grasshoppers {Galoptenns sprefus). The bird made a 

 fence-post his point of departure and return, flying off a few rods and 

 capturing his game, and then alighting on the post to devour it more at 

 leisure. These birds are apparently much less numerous in this region 

 than they were ten or twelve years ago. — Charles Aldrich, Webster 

 City, loiva. (Communicated by E. C.) 



Song op Hepburn's Finch (Leucosticte littoralis, Baird). — In a re- 

 cent letter (February 25, 1878) from Captiiin Bendire is the following in- 

 teresting note on the song of Hepburn's Finch. As no writer has made 

 any mention of the song of this species, I deem the Captain's account well 

 worthy of a place in the Bulletin. "Yesterday evening," he writes, "on 

 my way to the stable, I saw a solitary Leucosticte on the eave of the roof 



