General Notes. 



549 



Such statements as the foregoing cast a shadow of suspicion upon re- 

 marks that otherwise might be regarded as authentic, and attach to the 

 work the stigma of untrustworthiness. 



The account of the nocturnal habits of the Virginia Rail, althouo-h the 

 wording is changed, savors strongly of the latter part of the 537th page 

 of Coues's "Birds of the Northwest." 



Enough has been said to show that instead of becoming an authority, 

 worthyof place amongst the standard works on North American ornithol- 

 ogy, Mr. Gentry's book on nests and eggs must inevitably find its level 

 alongside such unreliable and worthless productions as Jaspers "Birds of 

 North America" and similar trash. In other words, instead of a work of 

 scientific value, we have a popular picture-book, well-adapted for the 

 amusement of children. — C. H. M. 



General ITote.5. 



Dendrceca palmarum at Sing Sing, New York. — On April 29, 1SS2, 

 while collecting at this place, I killed a specimen of the true D. pahnaru7n. 

 The bird is unusually yellow beneath, but Mr. Robert Ridgway, who kindly 

 compared it, says : "We have several specimens from Wisconsin and 

 • Illinois which will match it." It was busily engaged, when captured, in 

 catching winged insects in a low swampy thicket. — A. K. Fisher, M. D., 

 Sing Sing, N. T. 



Nest and Egg.s of Setophaga picta — a Correction. — Mr. W. E. 

 Bryant has kindly called my attention to the fact that he described two 

 nests and sets of eggs of the Painted Redstart in Vol. VI of this Bulletin 

 (pp. 176, 177). The clutch found by Mr. Stephens and mentioned by me 

 in the last number of the Bulletin (Vol. VII, July 18S2, pp. 140, 141) is, 

 therefore, the third, instead of the first authentic one known. I take 

 this opportunity for correcting the mistake, and at the same time tender 

 my apology to Mr. Bryant for the inadvertent oversight of his note. — 

 William Brewster, Cambridge, Afa.ts. 



The Summer Tanager {Pyranga ces/iva) in New Brunswick. — 

 While staying at Grand Manan. N. B., in June, last year, I saw in the pos- 

 session of Mr. J. F. C. Moses a Summer Tanager which had been taken 

 there a few weeks before. It was shot at North Head, Grand Manan, 

 about the 12th or 14th of May, 1881, by a boy who brought it in the flesh 

 to Mr. Moses, by whom it was mounted. The bird — which was undoubt- 

 edly a male, though dissection liad been neglected — was in full plumage, 



