2QA General Notes. [J"ly 



Occurrence of the Least Tern at San Diego, Cal. — Qiiite a number of 

 individuals of this species were shot in the summer of 1883, on the penin- 

 sula enclosing San Diego Bay. My own record of the birds is for the 

 months of June and July, but others were reported in August and Septem- 

 ber. None have been seen this year up to date (May 25), and I am in- 

 clined to think their occurrence very unusual. I have never heard of 

 them before on this southern coast. — Godfrey Holtkrhoff, Natiotial 

 City, Cal. 



Wilson's Petrel in \A^estern New York. — In my report to Dr. A. K. 

 Fisher of the birds that occur in this vicinity, I mentioned among the 

 Accidental Visitants a ' Stormy Petrel,' and gave him the particulars of 

 its capture. He asked me to report it to ' The- Auk'. The specimen is 

 in my -collection, and was taken by Mr. J. A. Newton of this city in Oct., 

 1S75, while shooting Golden Plover in a field just outside the city limits. 

 On examining it I find it is a Wilson's Petrel {Oceanttes oceanica) instead 

 of Stormy Petrel as reported. It was presented to the Jewett Scientific 

 Society and lately came into my possession. — J. L. Davison, Lock- 

 port, N. r. 



New'* Brunswick Winter Notes. — Birds were particularly abundant 

 during the winter that has just passed, especially through the earlier 

 months, but they were not of the species generally common here at that 

 season. The scarcity of Owls and Hawks was a marked feature, as was 

 also the comparatively rare occurrence of the Crossbills, the Chickadees, 

 the Snow Bunting, the Tree Sparrow, and the Redpoll. Pine Grosbeaks 

 were numerous, and I thought some of the adult males were more bril- 

 liantly colored than any I had met before. They are always rather fear- 

 less of man, but the flock that wintered near St. John last winter seemed 

 conspicuously so. I came upon a number feeding on the ground, and as 

 I walked through their midst they barely moved out of my way, going off 

 two or three yards, and when I stood, coming back to within arm's reach. 

 One audacious fellow actually hopped between my legs, coolly pecking as 

 he went. 



The Red-bellied Nuthatch and the Golden-crowned Kinglet were report- 

 ed very abundant in some localities. One trustworthy correspondent 

 writes : ''Observing a thi'ong of birds in a grove, I went to the edge, and 

 gave a shrill whistle, when they flocked around n?e. I counted over forty, 

 mostly Nuthatches." 



But the winter will be chiefly remembered by our naturalists as the 

 season when the Bohemian Waxwing was first seen by the rising genera- 

 tion of observers ; when several individuals of the Brown Creeper, the 

 Thistle Bird, the Purple Finch, and the Cedar Bird were taken near St. 

 John in January and February, and when large numbers of Crows and 

 Robins spent the entire season in the Province. 



It was not a 'mild' winter either, for though during a part of February 

 the temperature was higher than that month generally brings us, the 

 weather of the most of January was far from 'mild' — the thermometer 



