1SS4.] iuucral Nofcs. -^93 



Ipswich Sparrow. At any rate, the matter is worth investigating, and it 

 is hoped that some reader of 'The Auk' may he ahle to decide the 

 question. — Romkrt Ridgway, Washitigton. D. C. 



Calamospiza bicolor in Southern California. — About the middle of 

 April of the last spring, I saw an individual (male) of this species witliin 

 a quarter of a mile of San Diego Bay. singing by the roadside. Early in 

 May thej' were first observed in large flocks on the mesa within a few 

 miles of the Mexican line, both males and females. At present writing. 

 May 25, they are everywhere abundant on the mesas, and apparently 

 breeding. Mr. L. Belding tells me he has met with the bird in Lower 

 California during his explorations there. I have never met with it before 

 in California, nor have I heard of its occurrence here in past years. Do 

 I record a new area of its distribution .?— Godfrey Holtkrhoff, Nafio?/- 

 al City. Cal. 



Egg of the Cowbird in Nest of the Carolina Dove. — Mr. E. H. King 

 of West Libei-ty. Iowa, writes me to this eft'ect, adding that the Dove is 

 the largest bird he has known to be chosen as the Cowbird's foster-parent. 

 — Elliott Couks, Washington, D. C. 



Xanthocephalus icterocephalus in Chester County, South Carolina. — 

 Sometime since a friend informed me that there was to be seen in one of 

 the stores of this place a curious and unknown bird, which was exciting 

 considerable comment. In this rara avis I expected to find, as has fre- 

 quently been the case heretofore, the Rose-breasted Song Grosbeak, or 

 some other of the smaller and more brilliantly colored birds, which 

 usually escape general observation. In consequence, I was not a little 

 surprised to find a large Blackbird, with a yellow head, neck, and fore-breast, 

 and a conspicuous white wing-patch, which I recognized at once as the 

 Yellow-headed Swamp Blackbird of the western prairies. The circum- 

 stances of the capture are as follows : On the morning of April 17, 18S4, 

 a gentleman of the town noticed it in his stable-yard, just back of the 

 principal business street. Here it remained all day, being very tame, and 

 letting him walk up within fifteen or twenty steps, then "running off 

 like a chicken." At night it disappeared, but the next morning, the iSth, 

 it returned and was caught about ten or eleven o'clock in a trap. The 

 presence of this wanderer, in a locality so remote from its usual habitat, 

 is not improbably due to the heavy southwest gales we had been having 

 for some time back. — Leverett M. Loomis, Chester, S. C. 



The Turkey Buzzard in Western New York. — A Turkey Buzzard 

 {Cafhartes aura) was shot at Kendall Mills, ten miles northwest of this 

 town. May 23, 1SS4, by a fiirmer named George Hofl:man. He saw the bird 

 sitting on the top of a dead tree near where he was at work, and by a well- 

 directed shot with his rifle brought it to the ground. The bird was 

 purchased by Mr. D. T. Bruce, a taxidermist of Brockport. and is now in 

 his collection. The specimen was recorded by Mr. Bruce in the 'Brockport 

 Republic" of May 29, 18S4; but the occurrence seems worthy of a more 

 accessible and permanent record. — J. T. Eraser, Brockfort, N. Y. 



