The White-throated Sparrow Breeding in Eastern Massachusetts.— 
On nine different days, from June 29 to August 6 of the present year, I 
heard a White-throated Sparrow ( Zonotrichia albicollis ) singing at the 
same locality in Boxford, Essex Co., Mass., and on several occasions I 
saw the bird plainly and fully identified it — once when in company with 
Dr. C. W. Townsend. I was unable to find the female or the nest, but on 
August 20 I saw at the same place two young birds of this species in the 
juvenal plumage with speckled breasts, one of them having the tail im- 
perfectly fledged. They were alone while I watched them and were evi- 
dently able to shift for themselves. The finding of the young at this 
time and place and in this plumage seems to establish the fact of the 
breeding of the bird here. Messrs. Howe and Allen’s List cites but two 
breeding records of this species for eastern Massachusetts — Browne, 
Bulletin N. O. C., Vol. V, p. 52, of a nest found in Framingham, 
•1879, by Mr. C. E. Haeuber, and Torrey, Auk, Vol. V, pp. 426, 427, of a 
pair observed for several days at one locality in the breeding season of 
1888, in the town of Wakefield, the latter not being a “breeding record ” 
strictly speaking. What gives the matter additional interest is the fact 
that on June 4, at a locality a quarter or half mile distant from that of the 
bird above-mentioned and also in the town of Boxford, I had previously 
heard the song of a White-throated Sparrow, but though I visited the 
place often thereafter I did not hear it again until July 2, when I heard it 
delivered two or three times and once very distinctly. This song was 
entirely different from that of the bird of the other locality, being one of 
the commoner forms, while that was individual and quite unique in my 
experience. This convinces me that two male White-throated Sparrows 
passed the breeding season here, and suggests that the nesting of this 
species in Essex County may be something more than accidental. It is 
not easy, however, to account for the fact that the latter bird was heard 
but twice. I may also add that the two localities mentioned are separated 
by thick woods, and that two or three roads intervene. According to Mr. 
G. M. Allen’s List of the Birds of New Hampshire, Zonotrichia albicollis 
has not been found breeding in the eastern part of that State south of 
Lake Winnepesaukee. The region about Boxford has a slight Canadian 
tinge, Vireo solitarius, Helmintho-phila rubricafilla , Dendroica black- 
buruice , and Hylocichla guttata fallasii being found there in the breed- 
ing season. — Francis H. Allen, West Roxbury, Mass. 
Aok, XXII, Oct. , IQOdi 9 • 
