192 General Notes. 



in a distinct p;\ragraph, and each paragra])li l)t'2inning with the name of 

 tlie species /'/* Ilalics. The rule given by the author demonstrates that all 

 these are by him considered " New England birds." Among those thus 

 given are Saxicold aenanthe, Oporornis formnsa, Seiurus ludocicianua, Corviis 

 ossifroqus, and several others, all of whicli, at that time, were without any 

 evidence of a New England existence. Several were so admitted by the 

 wi-iter in giving them, and some, to this day, have no record in favor of 

 their being of New England. Yet these stand in the list, paragraph, 

 Italics, and all, indistinguishable from Tardus niigruloriaa or !>pizella 

 Kociniis as to their right to be there. 



On page G4 tlie impartial reader will find an " Addenda," giving three 

 moi'e species, all recorded in precisely the same manner with the preceding 

 three hundred and thirty-two, — that is, in separate paragraplis, commen- 

 cing with their names in Ilalics, — two of them claimed as actually taken, 

 the third given as found both on our north and south, and stragglers in 

 New England are anticipated, and all three apparently intended to be in- 

 cluded in the list. Certainly they are not distinguishable from the others, 

 and Hesperiphona is, to all appearance, as much included in the list as 

 Corvus ossifrugus, or any of the others that are admitted to be not actually 

 known to have been taken within its limits. 



Now, turning to my list of the birds of New England, page 18, it will be 

 seen tliat I sinij)ly refer to the fact that the bird is thus given, and on 

 hjipothe'dcal grounds, the only apparent reason for tlius giving it being that 

 its occurrence was regarded as probable, and that I, so far from discred- 

 iting, fully admitted this probability, strengthening the hypothesis by 

 mentioning a new instance of its ascertained occurrence near Vermont. 

 The impartial reader can but find that my statement, instead of being- 

 false, was to all appearance fully justified ; that a " chiim " was plainly 

 implied by tlie writer's own test as to his own meaning and intent, — not 

 as ascertained, like S'.rix praiincnla, but as hypothetical, like Siurus Iwlo- 

 virAanus ; and that not only in the particular paragraph, but throughout 

 my list, no " side-thrust" is given or intended for any one whatever, — in 

 a word, that the accusation is purely imaginative, and that all I stated 

 wa"* given in entire good faith. 



Whether 1 deserve to have it said of me that I " have become notably 

 over fond of giving side-thrusts to any one who may chance to dilliir," or 

 whetlier such an unainiable peculiarity is more typical of some one else, 

 would be a question quite out of" place in what I trust its publishers design 

 to be a journal devoted to pure ornithological science, and I am the last 

 person who would seek to misuse its pages by mere personalities. — 

 Thomas M. Buewku. 



[Though we reluctantly open the pages of the Bulletin to mere jier- 

 sonalities, we here give Dr. Brewer a chance to be heard. We ai-e in- 

 formed that the person referred to has no reply to make. — Eds.] 



