238 General Notes. 



I kept a close watch on them during May, and found them in their ac- 

 customed place as late as May 19 ; thus confirming the previous late date. 

 Before their departure both male and female become very full plumaged, 

 and are more than usually striking in appearance when seen among the 

 thick green foliage of late May. — Thomas S. Roberts, Minneapolis, 

 Minn. [_Comm. by E. C] 



Southward Range of Centrophanes lapponica. — A letter from 

 Howard Ayers, dated Fort Smith, Ark., February 26, 1879, states : " The 

 Lapland Longspur is found as far south as the central part of Arkansas. 

 They appear in this part of the State about November, in small flocks, but 

 as it grows cold ..they collect in immense numbers and scatter again as 

 spring comes (about 1st of February). Two. thirds of these large flocks are 

 Missouri Skylarks (iVeocor?/s spraguei). I have never seen the Longspurs 

 in companies by themselves, but always more or less mixed with the 

 Larks." — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 



Henslow's Buntixg (^Coturniculus henslowi) near Washington. — 

 About the middle of July of this year, while walking through a meadow 

 some five miles west of Washington, in Fairfax County, Virginia, I was 

 quite surprised to hear near by a rude bird-note, which sounded familiar, 

 although I had not heard it since the summer of 1871, It was the peculiar 

 seivick' of Henslow's Bunting. The time was about dusk, the brighter 

 stars having made their appearance, and there seemed to be some half- 

 dozen individuals answering one another from different directions. Upon 

 returnino' by the same route a few days afterward, I heard these birds 

 in every weedy meadow through which I passed, and soon discovered that 

 the species in question was not only an extremely common bird, but gen- 

 erally distributed, in suitable localities. A friend who accompanied me on 

 the first occasion, and whose attention was directed to the note, returned . 

 to the same locality a few days after, and with a companion has made 

 one or two subsequent visits, the result of which has been the securing 

 of numerous specimens, including the young in first plumage. — Robert 

 RiDGWAY, Washington, D. C. 



The Snowbird {Junco hyemalis) in Southern Michigan in Sum- 

 mer. — I take pleasure in announcing the occurrence here in summer of 

 the Blue Snowbird. I saw it on July 8 (1879), and was often within ten 

 or twelve feet of it. I was without my gun, or I would have secured 

 it. This, however, is not the first instance of the occurrence of this bird 

 in Southern Michigan in midsummer. Mr. Charles W. Gunn, of Grand 

 Rapids, Mich., shot a male and female, July 13, 1878, near Grand Rapids, 

 in Ottawa County, which were apparently breeding. — H. A. Atkins, 

 Locke, Ingham Co., Mich. 



Nesting of the Snowbird {Junco hyemalis) in Eastern Ten- 

 nessee. — In conversation with the late Rev. R. Bidwell, some time 



