Captdre of the Stonechat near Eastport, Maine. — I have had 

 sent me a Stonechat (Saxicola cenanthe) shot by Mr. George Mosos on 

 Indian Island, near Eastport, August 25, 1879. — George A. Boaed- 

 man, Milltown, N. B. BuU. H.O.O. S.April, 1880, p. //i". 



The Wheatear Not a Bird of Maine. — In a recent article, Dr. Stejneger 

 {cf. Stejneger, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., Vol. XXIII, p. 473) cities the Wheat- 

 ear (Saxicola xnanthe) as a bird recorded from Maine. Now as I have 

 shown [cf. Knight, List of Birds of Maine, p. 141) there are no valid 

 grounds for admitting this species to the avifauna of the State. 



Careless and ignorant writers of the past have recorded the species in 

 question from Maine, owing to their failure to carefully read the title of 

 Mr. Boardman's list, upon the authority of which they made their sup- 

 posed records, and many other species as well as this one were cited upon 

 the same grounds and their own ignorance of the exact boundary line 

 between Maine and New Brunswick. Almost invariably Grand Menan 

 birds have been given a place in New England bird lists, which shows 

 the ignorance of geography exhibited by the authors. 



I have in my possession a letter from Mr. Boardman in which he 

 states that he has in his possession two specimens of the Wheatear, one 

 taken at Grand Menan, New Bruns-ivick, and the other taken on Indian 

 Island, New Brunswick. This letter was written in 1896, and gives cor- 

 rections of many other records made by geographical ignoramuses. 

 Through Mr. Boardman's aid all these erroneous Maine records were 

 straightened out and corrected and may be found in the ' List of the 

 Birds of Maine.' — Ora W. Knight, Bangor, Me. 



Aut, XVIII, July.. 1901, p/>.^;^~-«>fa 



Greenland Wheatear Seen in Massachusetts. — On Sept. 17, 1910, 1 

 saw a Wheatear at Pigeon Cove, Mass., at the extreme point of Cape Ann, 



and although I did not secure the bird, I had a good opportunity to observe 



it for sometime, making careful note of the size and coloring of the bird 



and the characteristic marking of the white upper tail-coverts and white ; 



.tail feathers, broadly tipped with black. 



I flushed the bird four or five times and as it made low flights from me, 

 it spread its tail, which looked short, and the large white spot, on the 

 upper tail-coverts and tail, with broad blackish band at the end of the tail, 

 was particularly conspicuous. 



The bird was alone and on some large loose rocks, at the top of the broad | 

 expanse of rock, which gradually extends to the ocean, and when flushed 

 could have easily flown to the nearby shrubbery and trees, but in each case 

 flew to another part of the loose rocks. At one time, when I thought the 

 bird had gone, I was surprised to have it dart down from above in an almost 

 perpendicular flight and light on one of the rocks in front of me. 



For about a week previous to Sept. 17, there had been a very strong 

 north wind. 



The subspecies was necessarily undetermined but undoubtedly was the 

 Greenland Wheatear {Saxicola cenanthe leucorhoa). 



The above note is offered as of interest, if not conclusive proof of the 

 occurrence of the bird in Massachusetts.— Chas. R. Lamb, Cambridge, 



Mass. X.X tx-xA^' /f/z-^>i^>St>-<Sr( 



