48 General Notes. 



Nesting of the Blue Yellow-backed "Warbler in Southern 

 Georgia. — In reading Mr. Loomis's interesting paper in the last Bulle- 

 tin upon the Birds of Chester County, South Carolina, I noticed that he 

 emphasizes the occurrence in summer of the Blue Yellow-backed AVarbler 

 (Parula americana). I find in some notes made at St. IMary's, Camden Co., 

 Ga., a record of a nest of this species, which was found in April, 187 7. 

 The female was shot just as she was entering her nest, which until then had 

 been unnoticed in the hanging tillandsia moss. The nest was finished, 

 but no eggs were laid. — W. Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



The Tennessee Warbler destructive to Grapes. — Mr. N. S. 

 Goss, of Neosho Falls, Kansas, writes me substantially as follows respect- 

 ing an interesting and hitherto unrecorded trait of the Tennessee AVarbler 

 (Helminthophar/a peregrina) : " AVhile visiting my brother, Capt. B. F. Goss, 

 at his home in Pewaukee, Wis., the 13th of September last, he handed me 

 for identification the embalmed bird herewith enclosed, remarking that 

 the birds were very destructive to his grapes, puncturing them with their 

 bills, and eating the pulp, or succulent part of the grapes. I at once pro- 

 nounced the bird to be a young Tennessee Warbler On visiting his 



grounds we found, 1 should think, about twenty birds scattered singly 

 here and there among the vines. They were very wild and kept continu- 

 ally in motion, uttering now and then a sharp, but not loud chip, as tliey 

 darted from the grapes into the raspberry-bushes, and when followed they 

 flew to a young grove of timber near by. I succeeded, however, in killing 

 four. I enclose also one of these for your examination." 



" These birds," he further adds, " are likely to prove destructive to the 

 grapes in that latitude (43° and further north), but I think that in their 

 southward migration they do not reach us (latitude 38°) until the grape 

 season is over. I at first thought the grapes thus punctured contained the 

 eggs or larvae of some insect ; but examination proved, on the contrary, 

 that only the largest and healthiest-looking gi-apes were attacked." — 

 J. A. Allen, Cambridge, Mass. 



Blue-winged Yellow Warbler in New England. — Our knowl- 

 edge of the nests and eggs of Helminlhophaga pinus is limited to a very few 

 examples, and although its presence in New England has been several 

 times noted, and it has been affirmed to breed (see Am. Nat., VII, 629; 

 this Bull., I, 73; Ibid., IT, 16; Merriam's Rev. Bds. Conn., p. 14), no 

 mention has been made, that I am aware, of its nest and eggs having 

 been actually taken.* The presence of here and there an individual in 

 the breeding season has rendered it a probable occurrence, and the present 

 season has made this a certainty. My friend, Mr. Harry Merrill, of Ban- 



* Since this paragraph was in type, I learn that several nests have been 

 taken by Mr. Clark, of Saybrook, Conn., and that one of its nests is in the 

 possessiou of Mr. Purdie, though no description of any has been published. 



