General Notes. 
121 
Mr. Boardman informs me, in a recent letter, that up to the present time 
this has been the only instance in which he has met with the nest of this 
species, and that he regards the Great Northern Shrike as a very rare bird 
in his neighborhood in the summer. So far as I now know, this is the 
only instance of its occurrence in New England. — T. M. Brewer, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 
ASgiothus exilipes in Massachusetts. — On the 16th of Novem- 
ber last, while collecting in Swampscott, I fired into a flock of xEgiothi , 
killing seven of the common form and one male of the light Northern race, 
exilipes. The occurrence of this form so far south has been noted pre- 
viously. Audubon, in writing of the Greater Bed-poll (JE. canescens ), 
mentions seeing it in Greenland, and also in New Jersey, and as found by 
others in Maryland. In this and in the following references xE. canescens 
is doubtless our form exilipes. In 1863 Mr. Samuels gives Mr. Yerrill 
as authority for the occurrence of xE. canescens in Maine. Mr. Maynard, 
in his list of 1870, takes the opportunity to refuse to give exilipes specific 
rank, but does not state whether the so-called species exists or not in East- 
ern Massachusetts. In 1874 Dr. Coues, in “ Birds of the Northwest,” 
writes that exilipes rarely if ever occurs in the United States. Dr. Brewer’s 
list of 1875 gives xE. canescens as rare in Eastern Maine, as I afterwards 
learned, on the authority of Mr. Boardman. Mr. Purdie, in his criticism 
of this list, seemed to doubt its occurrence ; while the last Massachusetts 
list, Mr. Allen’s, does not refer to the form as a synonym or otherwise. 
The flock from which my specimen was shot rose after being fired at, 
circled round and alighted on an elm close by, remaining quiet for a few 
seconds, then flying by twos and threes back and forth between the tree 
and their wounded comrade, hovering within twenty feet of my head, but, 
though I looked carefully, I could not see a second light bird. 
In this connection I may also mention a young moulting xE. linaria, show- 
ing no red on the head, but a slight coppery tinge above the forehead. — 
W. A. Jeffries, Boston , Mass. 
Becord of the Breeding of Crossbills in Northern Vermont 
in 1796. — This early record of the breeding of the Crossbills in New 
England, which I have found in “ The Bural Magazine ; or, Vermont Be- 
pository ” (Vol. II, Butland, 1796), may not be without interest. Of late 
years they have been found breeding in Maine and Vermont, though but 
few instances have been recorded. — Buthven Deane, Cambridge, Mass. 
Account of the Crossbill Bird. 
Rutland, October 16, 1796. 
To the Editor of the Rural Magazine. 
Sir, — There is a small bird, common in the northern part of this State, 
called Crossbills', from the singularity of their hills, which cross at the extrem- 
ity. Their bodies are a size larger than the Wren, but more full of feathers. 
Their color is ash, or brownish, in general ; on some of which there are tinges 
