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NOTES ON SOME OF THE RARER BIRDS OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
BY J. A. ALLEN. 
(Continued from page 585. 
Bargp's Sparrow. Centronyx Bairdii Baird. Mr. C. J. 
Maynard while collecting Long-spurs and Snow Buntings on 
the Ipswich sand-hills, December 4th, 1868, had the good 
fortune to shoot the first specimen* of this species thus far 
obtained east of the Missouri, so far as known. No other 
at least is yet on record, and but one other specimen seems 
to be extant. This is one of Audubon's types collected near 
the mouth of the Yellowstone, in the summer of 1843, and 
now in the Museum of the Smithsonian Institution. Mr. 
Audubon is the only naturalist who has previously met with 
it. He reports it as common at the locality where he dis- 
covered it, where he obtained both males and females and 
its nest.t But very little is known respecting its migrations 
or its distribution. Its discovery in Massachusetts was quite 
unlooked for. Mr. Maynard thinks he saw others, but sup- 
posing it to be some other species he made no especial 
efforts to obtain them. In his notes kindly communicated 
to me he remarks: "I saw other specimens, and am confident 
that I detected it the preceding season, 1867. It is probable 
that it is a regular winter visitor from the north, accom- 
panying the C. Lapponicus and P. nivalis, for it does not 
seem probable that it should occur regularly so far from its 
usual habitat— the distance being some over sixteen hundred 
miles— and not be found in the intermediate space." As he 
further observes, his specimen somewhat resembles the Bay- 
winged Sparrow (Poocetes gramineus), with which inex- 
perieneed ornithologist M easily confound it. It is 



inMr.: nana pese and gure of tnis specimen im Me book: on Tuner 

G Natural History ") now 
blishing. 
T. Hisl of Ameriea, Vol. vii; p. 859, pl. 500. 
: (631) 
