52 General Notes. 



Ammodromus caudacutus a Summer Resident in Southern 

 Maine. — Although it rather reflects upon my previous thoroughness as a 

 field observer,* I suppose the ornithological public ought to be informed 

 that Ammodromus caudacutus remains to breed in the Scarboro' marshes, 

 after all. I say to breed, and the presence there of some half-dozen 

 pairs during the past summer (1879), will probably be accepted as good 

 evidence of nidiflcation, though I have not actually seen any nests. The 

 bird is so shy and lurking in habit that a few scattered pairs would hardly 

 be detected amongst the rank grass and weeds of the marshes, during 

 summer, were the faint song of the male not heard ; and I am forced to 

 believe, in spite of my previous negative evidence to the contrary, that the 

 species ought to be included among the regular summer residents of this 

 locality. — Nathan Clifford Brown, Portland^ Maine. 



Note ON PeuC/Ea illinoensis. — The want of requisite material to 

 determine the exact relationship between this new form and P. cestivalis, 

 which induced me to accord provisionally specific rank to P. illinoensis in 

 my article on the latter in the October number of this Bulletin, has fortu- 

 nately been supplied through the kindness of Mr. N. C. Brown of Port- 

 land, Me., who has courteously sent me two examples of P. asii'yaZis collected 

 by himself at Coosada, Central Alabama, in the spring of 1878. These 

 examples being exactly intermediate between the true P. cestivalis (from 

 the Atlantic Coast district of Georgia and Florida), and the Illinois and 

 Texan specimens characterized as P. illinoeiisis, it becomes necessary to 

 degrade the latter from the rank of a species, which had been provision- 

 ally accorded it. The Western bird should therefore stand as P. cestivalis 

 illinoensis. 



Basing an opinion solely upon the two specimens kindly submitted to 

 me by Mr. Brown, it would be impossible to say to which form the Ala- 

 bama birds most nearly approximate. I have no hesitation in saying, 

 however, that those seen by me bear a decidedly closer resemblance to the 

 types of illinoensis than to some specimens of true cestivalis which I have 

 seen. — R. Ridgway, Washington, D. C. 



ZONOTRICHIA ALBICOLUS NESTING IN EASTERN MASSACHUSETTS. — I 



have lately seen a set of eggs of the White-throated Sparrow obtained in 

 this vicinity, and interviewed the collector, Mr. E. Haeuber of this place. 

 The locality was the southeast j^art of Framingham, near the Natick line. 

 The location was a tussock in a rather wet meadow, adjoining a wooded 

 swamp fringed with alders. The eggs, four in number, were taken early 

 in June, 1874, and were somewiiat advanced in incubation. Unfortunate- 

 ly neither nest nor bird was secured, Mr. H. not being then aware of the 

 value of his find ; but he says the identification is beyond all doubt, as he 

 flushed the parent bird from the nest, and she, alighting frequently within 

 a few feet, gave him every advantage in observing her. — F. C. Browne, 

 Framingham, Mass. 



* See note on this species, in this Bulletin, Vol. Ill, pp. 98, 99. 



