194 General Notes. 



The Titlark {Anthus ludovicianus) in Massachusetts in June. — 

 The occurrence of the Titlark on the coast of Massachusetts so late as the 

 8th of June, with just the possible suspicion that it was about to breed 

 there, is a very interesting and characteristic fact in the history of the 

 eccentric and abnormal habits of this species. It has been claimed to 

 breed regularly in Central New York, though its presence there in mid- 

 summer would seem, of itself, so improbable as to require confirmation. 

 The example now referred to as taken on our coast was shot by Mr. Wm. 

 A. Jeffries, on a small island off the shore, at Swampscott, on Saturday, 

 June 8. Its mate, if it had one, could not then be found, nor any trace of 

 a nest. We cannot be certain of its having been a mated bird, but the 

 condition of its reproductive organs renders this suppo.?ition probable. 

 The occurrence of this species on our coast, in the height of the breeding 

 season, while it does not necessarily confirm that of Mr. Gilbert of Penn 

 Yan (see Bull., Ill, p. 35), goes a good way to establish its eccentric and no- 

 madic habits, and prepare us to accept as possible, irregularities that would 

 he improbable in almost any other species. — T. M. Brewer, Boston, Mass. 



Nests and Eggs of Helminthophaga pinus. — Mr. S. N. Roads, of 

 West Chester, Pa., writes respecting two nests of this bird, the nidifica- 

 tion of which is as yet none too well known. On the 12th of June, 1878, 

 he found a pair of these Warblers showing unmistakable signs of having 

 a nest, which latter he soon discovered, as he saw the male fly to it with 

 a worm in his bill. It was built in the midst of a clump of taU swamp- 

 grass, on the outskirts of a forest where there was a good deal of weedy 

 undergrowth not over two feet high. The nest rested slightly on the 

 ground, and was quite bulky for the size of the bird ; the cavity was 

 nearly three inches deep by two inches in width. The structure was com- 

 posed externally of beech and oak leaves of the preceding year, which 

 " seemed to have been carelessly strewn and stuck in as if to form a barri- 

 cade around the brim." The lining consisted of fine strips of grape-vine 

 and inner bark of the oak, together with some straws. This nest contained 

 four young birds about two days old. 



Mr. Roads shortly afterward procured two eggs from another nest which 

 he found about a quarter of a mile from the same spot. These were pure 

 white, dotted with red at the greater end, and were of just the size of 

 those of Chrysomitris tristis, but less pointed. He also examined another 

 set of eggs procured by a friend in the same vicinity. — Elliott Coues, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Winter Wren breeding in Southern New York. — Six miles 

 south of Ithaca, N. Y., and leading eastward from Enfield Falls into the 

 Cayuga Valley, is a beautiful glen. It is long, deep, and narrow, with 

 steeply diverging walls rising, on either side, some three hundred feet 

 above the bed of the stream. Large hemlock, pine, and beech trees are 

 so closely crowded together in it as to preclude effectually the sun's rays, 



