1889. ] Correspondence. 281 
species in Maine, though it has once been detected at Pine Point in Janu- 
ary.* 
Robins wintered in unusual numbers in and about the city. 
A single flock of Cedarbirds (about twenty in number) appeared on 
‘February 6. 
But the most interesting result of the mild season was the wintering of 
Colaptes auratus. Asa rule this species withdraws very early in Novem- 
ber, although my brother saw a straggler on November 13, 1881.¢ Yet 
while most of the birds disappeared inthe autumn of 1888 about the usual 
time, I sawa single individual (perhaps the same one) almost every day 
up to December 18. After that date I met with no more until January 1, 
1889, when I found a bird feeding on the berries of a mountain-ash tree 
within the City limits. A friend reported one on Cape Elizabeth on 
January 3, and Mr. Luther Redlon, of Portland, an accurate observer of 
birds, saw one in the Portland ‘Oaks’ on February 10. I met with one 
again on February 16, and also on the 25th of the same month. From 
the latter date up to March 1, not a day passed without my meeting with 
one. It may be worth while to note that all the birds seen after the first 
of November were males. So far as Iam aware the Flicker has not be- 
fore been known to winter in Maine, though Mr. Everett Smith has re- 
corded { the capture ofa single bird at Fort Popham, in January, 1885.— 
Joon CLirForD Brown, Portland, Maine. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
A Suggestion to the A. O. U. Committee on the Revision of the Check- 
List of North American Birds. 
To THE EDITORS OF THE AUK: 
Dear Sirs:—Perhaps no more important and beneficial advance has 
ever been made in North American ornithology than the publication by 
the American Ornithologists’ Union of a ‘Check-List’ which at once 
became an authoritative standard and assures us of a uniformity and 
probable fixity of nomenclature before impossible. With intense satisfac- 
tion, therefore, should we view a continuance of this work in the labors 
of the committee whose duty it has become to annually revise the pro- 
ductions of the preceding year and give to the Union the results of their 
deliberations. 
But with how much more pleasure should we regard this committee’s 
* See Goodale, Auk, Vol. II, p. 16. 
t See Proc. Port. Soc. Nat. Hist., Dec., 1882. 
{ Forest and Stream, February 5, 1885. 
