General Notes. 
2 53 
unheard of numbers, stopping awhile to feed, and then hurrying on. The 
next morning the host was even greater, and the trees fairly swarmed 
with Warblers. Before noon of that day most of the birds had passed on, 
but for a day or two afterward the number of loiterers was sufficient to 
be noticeable, compared with ordinary migrations, though they seemed 
but a few stragglers after the army that had swept over the country 
during the previous days. Almost all the species of Warblers that occur 
in the spring migration through New England were observed. Among 
the rarer ones were Helminthophila peregrina , Dendrceca tigrina , D. 
castanea , and Geothlypis Philadelphia. A White-crowned Sparrow was 
also shot in Cambridge. , 
Dr. Coues suggests that the cold wave spoken of by Mr. King* was the 
cause of this accumulation of birds. Such could hardly have been the 
case, as that occurred on the 21st and 22d, whereas by that time the accu- 
mulated hosts had reached .Massachusetts. 
It would be interesting to hear further of the course and magnitude of 
this “bird wave” as observed at other points. — Charles F. Batchelder, 
Cambridge , Mass. 
Birds New to or rare in the District of Columbia. 
1. Bewick’s Wren ( Thryomanes bewicki). An adult $ , taken at 
Arlington, Virginia (immediately opposite Washington), April 10, 1882, 
by W. Palmer, is in the collection of the U. S. National Museum (No. 
86,218). 
2. Yellow-throated Warbler ( Dendrceca dominica). The Na- 
tional Museum also possesses a fine young $ of this species, taken at 
Arlington by Mr. Palmer, September 7th, 1881 (No. 84,858). 
3. Loggerhead Shrike ( Lanitis ludovicianus'). Several specimens 
of this irregularly distributed, and everywhere more or less local, species, 
have within the last few years heen taken in the vicinity of Washington, 
and are now in the collection of the National Museum. Most if not all 
of them were obtained in winter. 
4. Sharp-tailed Finch (. Ammodromus caudacutus'). In the mounted 
collection of the National Museum there is a fine adult of this species 
labeled, “Washington City, September, 1862; C. Drexler.” (Nat. Mus. 
Catal. No. 25,905.) — Robert Ridgway, Washington , D. C. 
Notes on some Birds and Eggs from the Magdalen Islands, 
Gulf of St. Lawrence. — The following notes, made by Mr. M. A. 
Frazar during a collecting trip to the Magdalen Islands in June and July, 
1882, seem of sufficient importance to merit publication, although many of 
them are not absolutely new. Some of the points which they cover, how- 
ever, have been previously involved in more or less obscurity, while the 
others will be none the worse for fresh data. The specimens described, 
and most of those mentioned, are now in the writer’s collection, and the 
descriptions are on his authority. 
1. Dendrceca striata. Black-poll Warbler. — A set of three fresh 
eggs, identified by the capture of the female parent, was taken June 23. 
* This Bulletin, Vol. VII, p. 185. 
