120 General Notes. 



" strange Finch," taken in a swampy place a few miles from town, which 

 he was unable to identify with any North American species. It proved to 

 be the Amadina ruhronigra of India, a species more or less a favorite as a 

 cajje-bird, and frequently imported by the bird-dealers. It had recently 

 moulted, as was shown by a few feathers still not fully grown, and was 

 consequently in fresh, unworn plumage, and had the appearance, to my 

 corresi)ondent, of a " wild bird." It is, of course, beyond the limit of 

 probability that it was a natural wanderer from India. 



Dr. Brewer has recently recorded (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XX, 

 271) the capture, at South Scituate, Mass., "in midwinter," of a South 

 African Finch (Crithagra hutyracea). '• Its plumage was clean and fresh, 

 and the bird was in good condition." Yet Dr. Brewer does not suppose 

 it was other than an escaped cage-bird, although it had when taken " all 

 the appearance of a wild bird," nor does the supposition that it was a 

 natural straggler from Africa seem for an instant tenable. 



The European Goldfinch (Carfhielis elegans) has been repeatedly taken 

 in a wild state in Eastern IMassachusetts ; so frequently, in fact, that it 

 has been conjectured that this hardy species may have become established 

 here through fortuitous introduction. It being a common cage-bird, it 

 seems probable that numbers may escape each year, while their hardy 

 nature would easily enable them to maintain an existence here for a con- 

 siderable period. 



Mr. William Brewster informs me that he shot a pair, April 21, 1875, 

 the female of which was found to contain eggs that would have been laid 

 in a few days. They were very wild, and were not recognized till they 

 had bf en shot. In addition to the many that doubtless escape every year 

 from confinement, a considerable number were turned out, Mr. Brewster 

 informs me, not long before this date, by the " Society for the Acclimatiza- 

 tion of Foreign Birds." It is, stated that some forty years ago Skylarks 

 were turned out on Long Island. Skylarks and other European birds 

 were set loose, some years ago, in Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge, 

 but are supposed to have all soon died. It is a matter of record (see 

 anted, p. 114) that in 1853 a considerable number of pairs of Skylarks, 

 Wood Larks, English Blackbirds, and other Thrushes, Robin-redbreasts, 

 and Goldfinches were set at liberty in Greenwood Cemetery, New York, 

 and that similar importations have been made to Cincinnati, and elsewhere 

 in this country. 



I have elsewhere recorded the capture of the Serin Finch (^Ser-inus 

 mei'ldionrdis) in Western Massachusetts in winter, and numerous cases of 

 similar character might doubtless be easily cited ; the chief interest of 

 which lies in the fact of their showing that many of the hardier cage-birds, 

 and especiall}' those of the Finch family, are capable of maintaining an 

 existence in a wild state for a considerable period in countries remote, and 

 differing more or less in climatic and other conditions, from their native 

 homes ; and as indicating, furthermore, that If such species, or others of 



