General Notes. 
59 
One of the above males is now in the collection of Mr, W. Brewster, 
and the other is in my own cabinet ; the female is in the collection of 
Mr. Greene Smith of Peterboro’, N. Y. — Ruthven Deane, Cambridge , 
Mass. 
Some Light on the History of a Rare Bird. — In the Bulletin 
for January, 1878, I mentioned the fact that a third specimen of the 
White-throated Warbler (Helminthophaga leucobronchialis, Brewster) had 
been found in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
Sciences. In the paper I stated that there was no label attached to the 
bird, designating its species, sex, or the locality where it was procured ; 
but that on the bottom of its stand was written, “ J. C., 20 Oct., 1862,” 
and also what I made out to be, “ Not from Bell,” which was much 
blurred. Further, the history of the specimen was involved in obscurity. 
I wrote to Mr. N. T. Lawrence of New York, concerning the bird, and 
shortly afterwards, having called on Mr. Bell, the well-known ornitholo- 
gist, Mr. Lawrence wrote me as follows : — - 
“ I asked Mr. Bell if he remembered at any time procuring a specimen of 
H. chrysoptera which differed in any way from the normal specimens. He 
said that when his attention was called to your last article in the Bulletin, he 
recalled the fact that somewhere about 1832, in the spring of that year, at 
Rockland, N. Y., he shot, as he supposed, a young male Golden- wing, but at 
the time remarked to his brother, who was collecting with him, that the bird 
was highly plumaged, but lacked the black of the throat, hence he took it to be 
a young male. His attention was first attracted to the bird by a note he had 
never heard before, and one of Bell’s specialties in his younger days was his accu- 
racy in determining different species by their notes. He also said he kept the 
specimen a long time, thinking it an unusual form of the Golden-wing, and 
finally sold it to a man in Philadelphia ; therefore, I think in all probability 
the bird you found at the Academy is the identical one Bell procured over forty 
years ago. He said he intended to question his brother the next time he saw 
him, in regard to it ; so if 1 hear anything more on the subject I will let you 
know.” 
From the above extract from Mr. Lawrence’s letter, it seems there is 
strong reason for believing that the bird discovered in the Academy’s 
collection is the self-same one shot by Bell at Rockland, N. Y., in 1832 ; 
and on the almost obliterated words, “ Not from Bell,” or, as Mr. George 
N. Lawrence says might be, “ Note from Bell,” hung the history of the 
specimen. The sentence, “ J. C., 20 Oct., 1862,” is, I think, explainable. 
Mr. Cassin, having charge of the Academy’s ornithological collections, 
like Mr. Bell supposed the bird to be an abnormal form of H. cJirysoptera, 
wrote his initials on the bottom of its stand, and also the date of deposit 
in the Academy, and set it aside among the specimens of that species. I 
think this fact is of much interest, as throwing light on a specimen of a 
species as rare as H. leucobronchialis , and also as showing its close rela- 
tion to the Golden- winged Warbler (H. cJirysoptera). — Spencer Trot- 
ter, Philadelphia , Pa. 
