jEgiothus exilipes in Massachusetts. — On the 16th of Novem- 
ber last, while collecting in Swampscott, I fired into a flock of JEgiothi, 
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 Red-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 JE. canescens 
is doubtless our form exilipes. In 1863 Mr. Samuels gives Mr. Terrill 
as authority for the occurrence of JE. 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 JE. 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 JE. linaria, show- 
ing no red on the head, but a slight coppery tinge above the forehead. — 
W. A. Jeffries, Boston , Mass. BnLL N.O.G. 4, April) 1870. P t ^ t ' 
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