General Notes 415 



if memoi"y serves me riglit, thus completing the picture of a larger 

 and chubbier and louder edition of the Field Sparrow. There was 

 no mistaking, the incidents and scenes of my first meeting with 

 them four years previously near Browns, Illinois, were too indel- 

 ibly impressed in the memory. A look at several skins of this spe- 

 cies in my collection, when I had come home, added an uunecessarj^ 

 confirmation to the identification. 



Thinking that this little batch of Peuccea had by the ardor and 

 excitement of migration been carried further north than they had 

 intended, in the companionship of White-throats and others, and 

 would retrace their way south again for a hundred miles or so, to 

 the latitude which, according to latest reports, formed the north- 

 ern limits of their breeding range in this state, I did not visit the 

 spot the next day. Therefore I was much surprised when on hap- 

 pening that way again on the 12th of May, I found them still m 

 the same place. Later, they seem to have scattered in pairs, two 

 or three of which at least remained in the park, where they had 

 been first seen, as I got glimpses of what seemed to be one of them 

 several times later in May and in June. During the last days of 

 the latter month, two or three were heard singing lustily in a 

 rather open grove across the street from my house, and here, to 

 make the record indisputable, I took one on July 1st. It proved a 

 male, the sexual organs of which showed breeding. Thus it seems 

 that this more or less Carolinian species must now be counted :i 

 member of the avifauna of the Chicago area. 



G. ElFRIG. 



River Forest, 111. 



SONG SPARROW, THRUSH, AND OWL NOTES. 



While on a collecting trip in Virginia, during the middle of July 

 of this year, Mrs. Shufeldt captured a young Song Sparrow (Melos- 

 pisa tn. melodia), which apparently had very recently left the nest. 

 I placed it in a comfortable cage until such a time as I could ar- 

 range to photograph It. This came about in a few days, during 

 which period the bird fed readily on hard-boiled egg, bread, and 

 water, and a few meal worms. It was remarkable how rapidly it 

 developed and grew, and still more surprising how fond it became 

 of meal worms. 



An interesting point appeared with respect to its plumage ; for, 

 while this was apparently entirely normal, the proximal third of all 

 fhQ tail feathers came out pure white, and that portion of the tail 

 is that way at the present writing. The bird appears almost like 

 another species; and if it be a case of partial albinism, it is a very 



