General Notes. 
199 
was finally shot, March 4, 1878, on Coskata Pond, by Mr. F. P. Chad- 
wick, and by him presented to Mr. Sweet. The bird is apparently in 
nearly perfect plumage, with the otherwise pure white only partially 
obscured by a plumbeous wash upon the top and sides of the head, and 
for a short space on the neck behind. Its weight was sixteen pounds. 
The sex was not ascertained. Although this species is given in many of 
the local lists as of occasional occurrence during the migrations, there 
seems to be no previous record of its actual capture in Massachusetts. 
At the time of the first settlement of the country, according to various 
early writers, a Swan — presumably G. americanus — was common along 
the Merrimack River and in some other parts of the State. — William 
Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
Capture of a Fifth Specimen of the White-throated Warbler 
(Helminthophaga leucobronchialis). — I am indebted to Mr. E. I. Shores 
for the opportunity of examining a specimen of the White-throated 
Warbler, which was taken by him at Suffield, Conn., July 3, 1875. It is 
an adult male in very worn plumage. In every essential particular it 
agrees well with my type of the species, though exhibiting certain peculi- 
arities of coloration not found in any of the three specimens which I have 
previously examined. These differences are such as might be expected to 
occur in a series sufficiently large to present the range of individual 
variation, and do not tend to establish any closer connection with either 
of the allied species. The most marked departure from the type is pre- 
sented by the coloration of the under parts. The entire pectoral region is 
washed with pale yellow, which extends down along the sides of the abdo- 
men nearly to the tail. This coloring proves upon examination to be a 
merely superficial tipping to the feathers. In a good series of H. clirysop- 
tera before me several specimens occur which are marked in a nearly 
similar manner, though in none of them does the yellow wash extend so 
far down upon the sides. * With this latter species it seems to be a purely 
individual phase of coloration, dependent neither upon age nor season. 
Several young males in newly completed autumnal dress do not show the 
slightest trace of its presence, while a young female in fall plumage is 
quite distinctly tinged across the breast. The spring specimens most 
strongly marked are all apparently very adult birds. 
Another point of difference, scarcely to be expected when the unusual 
amount of yellow beneath is taken in consideration, is found in the 
restricted area of the yellow marking upon the wing-coverts. In the 
type specimen the wing-bands are nearly confluent, and present the 
appearance of a single broad yellow band upon the wing, while in Mr. 
Shores’s specimen they are widely separated. This, however, seems to be 
mainly due to the imperfect condition of the plumage, whereby the darker 
bases of many of the greater coverts are exposed. No further differences 
worthy of note occur, and the salient characters of white cheeks and eye- 
lids, narrow restricted black line through the eye, etc., are all strongly 
