Swamp Sparrows and Yellow-rumps — A Question of Evidence. It 
seems well to caution collectors against the inference that a bird winters 
in a given locality because it happens to be found there at some time during 
the winter. The writers of two interesting notes, printed on page 216 of 
the present volume of ‘ The Auk,’ make this hasty generalization. It is 
hardly possible that Swamp Sparrows passed the winter in Massachusetts, 
in a season so rigorous as was that of 1884-85 after the middle of January ; 
Mr. Chadbourne certainly does not produce sufficient evidence for the 
conclusion that they did so. It is even less likely that Yellow-rumped 
Warblers tarried in Maine throughout the same season ; no person who 
kept a record of the weather during that remarkable winter will, I think, 
draw such an inference from Mr. Goodale’s note. — Nathan Clifford 
Brown, Portland, Me. Auk, 2, July, 1886. p , 30 7 
