General Notes. 121 



Mr. Boardman informs me, in a i-ecent letter, tliat up to the present time 

 tliis has been the only instance in which he has met with the nest of this 

 species, and that he regards the Great Northern Shrike as a very rare bird 

 in his neighborhood in the summer. So far as I now know, this is the 

 only instance of its occurrence in New England. — T. M. Brewer, Bos- 

 ton, Mass. 



^GiOTHUS EXiLiPES IN MASSACHUSETTS. — On the 16th of Novem- 

 ber last, while collecting in Swampscott, I fired into a flock of ^giothi, 

 killing seven of the common form and one male of the light Northern race, 

 exUipes. The occurrence of this form so far south has been noted pre- 

 viously. Audubon, in Avriting of the Greater Red-poll (-'©. canescens), 

 mentions seeing it in Greenland, and also in New Jersey, and as found by 

 others in Maryland. In this and in the following references yE. canescens 

 is doubtless our form exiUpe.s. In 1863 Mr. Samuels gives Mr. Verrill 

 as authority for the occurrence of Jl'l. canescens in Maine. Mr. Maynard, 

 in his list of 1870, takes the opportunity to refuse to give exilipes specific 

 rank, but does not state whether the so-called species exists or not in East- 

 ern Massachusetts. In 1874 Dr. Coues, in "Birds of the Northwest," 

 writes that exilipes rarely if ever occurs in the United States. Dr. Brewer's 

 list of 1875 gives JE. canescens as rare in Eastern Maine, as I afterwards 

 learned, on the authority of Mr. Boardman. Mr. Purdie, in his criticism 

 of this list, seemed to doubt its occurrence ; while the last Massachusetts 

 list, Mr. Allen's, does not refer to the form as a synonym or otherwise. 



The flock from which my specimen was shot rose after being fired at, 

 circled round and alighted on an elm close by, remaining quiet for a few 

 seconds, then flying by twos and threes back and forth between the tree 

 and their wounded comrade, hovering within twenty feet of my head, but, 

 though I looked carefully, I could not see a second light bii'd. 



In this connection I may also mention a young moulting jE. Jinaria, show- 

 ing no red on the head, but a slight coppery tinge above the forehead. — 

 W. A. Jeffries, Boston, Mass. 



Record of the Breeding of Crossbills in Northern Vermont 

 IN 1796. — This early record of the breeding of the Crossbills in New 

 England, which I have found in " The Rural Magazine ; or, Vermont Re- 

 pository " (Vol. II, Rutland, 1796), may not be without interest. Of late 

 years they have been found breeding in Maine and Vermont, though But 

 few instances have been recorded. — Ruthven Deane, Camhridfje, Mass. 



Account of the Crossbill Bird, 



RuTLAXD, October 16, 1796. 

 To THE Epitor of the Rural Magazine. 



Sir, — There is a sn.all bird, noramon in the noithern part of this State, 

 called Crossbills, from the singularity of theii- bills, which cross at the extrem- 

 ity. Their bodies are a size larger than tlie Wren, but more full of feathers. 

 Their color is ash, or brownish, in general ; on some of which there are tinges 



