74 General Notes. [January 
cult for me to account for this difference in our observations, infinitely 
the more so when the statement comes from the pen of such an accurate 
describer as is Dr. Merrill. 
This extraordinary flight of these Grosbeaks here, convinces me that 
either the bird is inclined to be at times very erratic in its migrations, or 
else it may have to do with the approaching season, perhaps indicating a 
coming winter of unusual severity. 
An excellent series of skeletons rewarded my collecting, and as I pre- 
dicted in my letter in the October ‘Auk’, the secondary palatine processes 
are absent, the entire skull much resembling that part of the skeleton in 
Coccothraustes vulgaris, as figured for us by Huxley.—R. W. SHUFELDT, 
Fort Wingate, New Mexico. 
Loggerhead Shrike at Bridgeport, Connecticut. — The following are 
the records of the Loggerhead Shrike at Bridgeport, Conn.: late in 
August, 1880, one seen; late in August, 1885, two seen together; August 
29, 1888, two seen together, one of which I shot. Mr. J. A. Allen pro- 
nounced this a Lantus ludovicianus exeubitorides and a bird of the 
year. All these birds were seen at the sea beach. The gizzard of the one 
killed was filled with grasshoppers.—C. K. AVERILL, Jr., Bridgeport, 
Conn. 
First Occurrence of the Philadelphia Vireo near Washington, D. C.— 
This bird is certainly rare with us, having until this spring escaped notice 
though expected and looked for. While collecting on the evening of May 
17, 1888, on the Virginia side of the Potomac near the new bridge, I took 
a specimen which was industriously feeding with Red-eyed Vireos in the 
willows on the marshy bottom lands. — WILLIAM PALMER, Washington, 
/0E (Ex 
Unusual Nesting Site of Dendroica virens.—There stands, a little aside 
from a public road on Cape Elizabeth, Maine, on the top of a small hil- 
lock, some distance from any woods, a small pagoda of two stories, which 
is almost nightly filled by noisy pleasure-seekers. About it a grape-vine 
grows luxuriantly, and Here, scarcely ten feet from the ground and only 
six from the floor of the piazza, a pair of Black-throated Green Warblers 
built their nest in the spring of 1888. Placed on the main stem of the 
vine, and so surrounded by leaves and twigs as to be absolutely invisible 
from the outside, it was nevertheless in plain sight the moment one 
stepped inside the sheltering vine upon the piazza. When I found the 
nest on June 29 it contained two eggs and one young bird, and on July 1 
the eggs had hatched.—JoHN C. Brown, Portland, Maine. 
A Rare Bird in Chester Co., South Carolina. — J had been waiting all 
the morning of Oct. 11, 1888, for the cessation of the heavy gale and driving 
rain that had begun during the previous night, for I was anxious to get 
out into the woods and see what effect the storm was having: on the 
