Vol. XIV 
1897 
General Notes. 93 
good order, and did not furnish entirely satisfactory indications. But we 
now have a fine series from this identical island, showing the assigned 
specific characters to be valid; and the species has been promptly accepted 
by the A. O. U. Committee. I refrain from further remarks, not wishing 
to anticipate anything that Mr. A. W. Anthony, the rediscoverer of the 
species, may have to say on the subject. 
While on the genus or subgenus Passerculus, 1 may note a possible 
nomenclatural question which seems incident to our reference of Passer. 
culus to the genus Ammodramus. This gives us the name A. savanna for 
one species, and A. savannarum for another. As these two names are of 
course the same word, only differing in terminal inflection, it may be that 
both cannot stand in the same genus. If so, it becomes a particularly 
awkward and unlucky matter; for sevannarum GoM., 1788, after Latham, 
Brisson, and Sloane, for the Jamaican form of the Yellow-winged Sparrow, 
antedates savanna Wits., 1811, for the Savannah Sparrow, and thus the 
latter unhappy bird loses its claim to its most distinctive designation — 
the very one, too, that gives it its common English name. As I do not 
find any other subspecific name that has been applied to our familiar 
eastern form, this may require a new one. I am quite ready to sink 
Coturniculus in Ammodramus, but think we may well recognize Passer- 
culus asa tull genus. That would seem to be one way out of the present 
difficulty, but does not do away with the real trouble, which goes back to 
Fringilla savanna WILs. vs. Fringilla savannarum GM. Failing any 
other resource, our Eastern Savannah Sparrow may be called Ammodramus 
(Passerculus) sandwichensts wilsontanus.— ELLIOTT COUES, Washington, 
10 (Gi 
Occurrence of Baird’s Sparrow (Ammodramus bairdi) in Washington. 
— On the 5th of September, 1895, while residing at Chelan in Okanogan 
County, Washington, I first met this bird. Only one specimen was 
secured, but the birds were abundant on weedy bottom lands along the 
lower end of Lake Chelan. They kept for the most part pretty close to 
the ground, where they seemed to be feeding on a little wild bean. The 
migration was noted up to the 9th, when the last specimens were seen. 
The return movement of spring was less noticeable. On the 29th of 
April, 1896, I came across perhaps a dozen Baird’s Sparrows in the sage- 
brush of an upland pasture, mixing freely with Zonotrichia leucophrys 
intermedia. An elegant male, with yellow areas in maximum color, was 
taken from a willow clump by the water’s edge on May 11.—WILLIAM L. 
Dawson, Oberlin, Ohio. 
Acadian Sparrow in Yates County, N. Y.— Oct. 7, 1896, I took a male 
Acadian Sparrow (Ammodramus caudacutus subvirgatus) and saw one 
more. The one I took was identified by Dr. Jonathan Dwight, Jr. I 
think there were more of them here, as the marsh grass was full of small 
Sparrows, but I was only sure of seeing two of the Acadian.—VERDI 
Burtcu, Penn Yan, N. Y. 
