198 General Notes. 



back as his excuse, " 0, it is nothing but a little brown bird." Such is 

 the deplorable ignorance of the majority of mankind. The little brown 

 bird turned out to be Melospiza lincolni. 



On arriving on the opposite side of the pond, I found the bird, driven 

 from her nest by my friend, had not returned; we therefore retired a little, 

 and in a fevv minutes she came back to her treasures and was sacrificed to 

 science. The nest was placed on the ground, where it was almost spongy 

 with water, within about two rods of the pond, and about the same dis- 

 tance from the edge of the forest. It was not under the protection of 

 any bush or stone, but was quite well concealed in some last year's tall 

 grass. It was composed entirely of dried grasses both inside and out, 

 the lining being neatly made of the finer spears, and contained three 

 eggs, a few days advanced in incubation. These measured .74 X .56. 

 The ground was a pale greenish, covered Avith spots and blotches of dif- 

 ferent shades of reddish-brown. On one of them the spots were so nu- 

 merous as to become confluent and almost conceal the ground-color, while 

 on another they were miich smaller, so that the greenish-white of the 

 ground-color was the predominant tint, except at the large end, where the 

 spots became larger and more confluent, as indeed they did on all three. 



This Moose Lake is a small body of water situated about fifteen miles 

 northeast of Wilmurt P. 0., Herkimer County, and must not be con- 

 founded with its larger namesakes, which are situated farther north, — 

 Moose in Herkimer County, Big Moose on the line, and North Moose in 

 Hamilton County. The outlets of these three all empty into the Moose 

 River, while that of the one here referred to runs into the West Canada 

 Creek. This I think is farther south than the Lincoln's Finch has been 

 found breeding east of the Great Lakes, and, in fact, is but little north of 

 Racine, which is the southern limit of its breeding, according to Baird, 

 Brewer, and Ridgway's " History of North American Birds." Nor can 

 I, with the limited number of books at my command, find any record of 

 the bird having been taken in this part of the State, — Egbert Bagg, Jr., 

 Utica, N. Y. 



Occurrence of the Whistling Swan (Cygnus americanus) in Massa- 

 chusetts. — During a recent visit to Nantucket I had the pleasure of 

 examining a fine specimen of the Whistling or American Swan in the 

 possession of Mr. H. S. Sweet of that place. Through Mr. Sweet's kind- 

 ness I am enabled to give the full particulars attending its capture. It 

 was first seen about December 27, 1877, on Sacacha Pond, at the east end 

 of Nantucket, in company with five Canada Geese. The latter were all 

 killed in the course of a few days, but the Swan, though repeatedly fired 

 at, seemed to bear a charmed life, and for a long time evaded all attempts 

 at its capture. Through the succeeding two months it was frequently 

 seen either in Sacacha Pond or Polpis Harbor, between which points it 

 appeared to confine its wanderings. The winter was a A'ery mild one on 

 the island, and it accordingly had little dilficulty in obtaining food. It 



