General Notes. 
55 
two hundred acres that has been lying out, until recently, for a number of 
years. Here and there are patches of newly-sown grain, but the greater 
portion is now in broom-sedge and weedy stubble and corn land. Near 
the middle there is a small “wet-weather branch,” which empties into a 
large creek a mile distant. November n, 1881, in this locality, in the 
weedy stubble, my first specimen of Le Conte’s Bunting was secured. 
Nov. 16, a second was taken in the broom-sedge near the same spot. Nov. 
17, a third was shot, and several others were seen. Dec. 3, three more 
were captured ; two in the broom-sedge, and . the remaining one in the 
swamp grass bordering the “branch.” Dec. 10, my last visit to the field, 
six additional specimens were taken, and as many more were seen. I am 
not aware that the species has hitherto been reported as occurring so far 
east as South Carolina. — Leverett M. Loomis, Chester , C. 
The Sharp-tailed Finch in Kansas. — Col. N. S. Goss, of Neosho 
Falls, Kansas, wrote me under date of Oct. 17, 1881, that he had killed 
what he thought was a male Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Finch. Two days 
later he shot another, which he kindly sent me. The bird proved to be, 
as Mr. Goss supposed, Ammodramus caudacutus nelson i. The birds were 
killed “at the edge of a slough, on the low bottom lands of the Neosho 
River, about two miles from Neosho Falls.” This discovery is of special 
interest as indicating that the Sharp-tailed Finch, formerly supposed to 
be strictly maritime in its distribution, may be found locally over a wide 
range in the interior. — J. A. Allen, Cambridge , Mass. 
Note on Mitrephanes , a new Generic Name. — The name Mitre- 
p horns of Sclater, P. Z. S., 1859, P- 44 ? is preoccupied in Coleoptera by 
Mitrephorus , Schonh., 1837, emended Mitrophorus , Burm., 1844. It may 
therefore be changed to Mitrephanes; type Mitrephanes phceocercus (Scl.) ; 
including Mitrephanes aurantiiventris (Lawr.), if not also Mitrephanes 
fulvifrons (Grd.), and its var. pallescens (Coues). — Elliott Coues, 
Washington , D. C. 
Nesting of Empidonax minimus and Helmintherus vermivorus in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey. — Although instances of the breeding 
of the Least Flycatcher within the limits of Pennsylvania and New Jersey 
have been affirmed by Turnbull and one or two other authorities, a precise 
record cannot perhaps be found that will prove it to breed as far south as 
Philadelphia. Having found a nest and clutch of eggs belonging to this 
species, June 1, 1881, and satisfactorily identified the parent birds by 
shooting them, it is thought that this notice may prove of interest as 
perhaps removing doubts as to the accuracy of Turnbull’s statement. 
E. minimus escaped the notice of the writer till the spring of 1880, when 
two pairs were noticed in June in the suburbs of Philadelphia, but any 
nests which may have existed escaped my observation. The present year 
(1881) I first noticed them in Delaware County, Pa., two pairs taking up 
their abode in an orchard surrounding the house. Here the above men- 
