320 General Notes. Taly 
represented by any consonant in our alphabet. It was also perfectly 
smooth in execution and mellow, flute-like in tone. The French w if 
dwelt upon, with inflections and modulations, as uttered by a sweet voiced 
Parisienne might closely, I imagine, represent the sound. After a while 
this singer came from his concealment, and, poising on an outer spray, 
there sang for eight or ten minutes, before flitting off, to be again 
hidden by the neighboring foliage. —THomAs ProcrTor, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
Spring Molt in Spinus pinus. -— In a paper published in the Proceedings 
of the Academy of Natural Science, Philadelphia, 1896, p. 141, I stated 
that so far as Icould judge from available material the Pine Finch had 
no spring molt. A series of specimens taken at West Chester, Chester 
Co., Pa., in May, 1897, by Dr. T. H. Montgomery shows, however, that 
quite an extensive renewal of the feathers occurs at this season. It of 
course does not extend to the remiges and rectrices. As my former state- 
ment was liable to be misleading, I take this opportunity to correct it. — 
WITMER STONE, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Pa. 
An Earlier Name for Ammodramus leconteil.— Frzngzlla caudacuta 
Latuam (Index Orn. I, 1790, 459) is usually cited as a doubtful synonym 
ot F. passertna WILSON, but reference to the description shows that 
‘Latham’s bird is Leconte’s Sparrow. The description, though brief, fits 
the latter bird very exactly, both as to coloration and dimensions, and 
the locality, interior of Georgia, is within the regular winter range of 
the species. Fortunately no change of specific name is, in this instance, 
necessary, the Orzolus caudacutus of Gmelin, described two years before, 
being a member of the same genus, even if it should be found desirable 
to recognize Coturniculus as a separate genus from Ammodramus; for 
A. lecontett is certainly more nearly related to A. caudacutus than to 
either Coturniculus passerinus or C. henslowztz.— ROBERT RipGway, U.S. 
National Museum, Washington, D. C. 
The Seaside Sparrow (Ammodramus marrtimus) in Massachusetts. — 
In a small private collection of mounted birds in Arlington, Mass., I find 
an adult Seaside Sparrow with the following history: shot by Mr. 
Eugene H. Freeman on the bank of the Neponset River, at high tide, 
about half way between Milton Lower Mills and Granite Bridge, on the 
Milton side of the river. Unfortunately the date of capture is not 
recorded; it was in the early autumn, however, something over twenty 
years ago, so Mr. Freeman tells me. 
In most of the older lists of the birds of Massachusetts the Seaside 
Sparrow is said to be a common summer resident of the salt marshes 
along the coast. This opinion doubtless arose from confounding the 
Seaside Sparrow with the Sharp-tailed Sparrow (Ammodramus cauda- 
cutus). That such aconfusion prevailed is shown by the fact that many 
of the old lists (e. g., Emmons’s ‘ Birds of Mass.,’ Holder’s ‘ Birds of Lynn,’ 
