Swamp Sparrows swa 4 Yellow. Ramps. — As the “ Wintering of the 
Swamp Sparrow in Eastern Massachusetts” has been made “a question of 
evidence,” it may be well to give that evidence somewhat more in detail 
than was before thought necessary, and also to state the reasons tor con- 
cluding that the birds did pass the winter in Cambridge. 
On December 29, 1884, four Swamp Sparrows were seen by Mr. F. H. 
Hitchcock in a small tangle of weeds and alders on the edge of a stream 
which runs through the Fresh Pond marshes, but they were so shy and 
hard to approach that only one of them was shot; this was stuffed by Mr. 
C. J. Maynard of Boston, who told me that he had never before seen one 
from Massachusetts in winter. While taking a short walk on the after- 
noon of January 31, 1885, 1 met Mr. Hitchcock, and together we went to 
the place where he saw the Sparrows on December 29, and also to the one 
in which they were found by Mr. Lamb in January , 1883.* Quite near 
the latter locality were the fresh and only partly frozen remains of a Spar- 
row (an undoubted Melosfiiza palustris, as I afterward made sure by 
comparison) which had evidently been killed by a Shrike. 
.From the above it would appear almost certain that the birds were 
present during the entire month of January, and it is very probable that 
they might have escaped my notice when I looked for them later. If the 
original flock consisted of only four there could not have been more than 
two left for me to find, and in the tangled underbrush, which, in one 
swampy place at least, extends over several acres, they might easilv have 
eluded me. 
I have always considered that any species found here in January was 
an undoubted winter resident, and its presence at any date during that 
month sufficient proof of this. Mr. William Brewster tells me that he 
considers the autumnal migration ended here by December 25, and Janu- 
ary, the one winter month when all birds (except such erratic species as 
Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks, etc.) are settled for a brief period. If Janu- 
ary is not accepted as the test month it will be almost impossible to de- 
termine our rarer winter residents, for early in February some of our 
most hardy spring birds often begin to arrive. 
It seems to me it is unsafe to say that “it is hardly possible that Swamp 
Sparrows passed the winter in Massachusetts in a season so rigorous as 
was that of i 884-’85 after the middle of January,” for there are numerous 
instances recorded of the wintering of certain birds far north of their 
usual habitat at that season, even during exceptionally cold winters. f 
The warm and open character of the winter of 1884- ’85 previous to Janu- 
ary 18 might also have caused the birds to establish themselves in a local- 
ity which they would have been unwilling or unable to leave later. 
f* to f 
Auk, 2, Qct. , 1886. p. 
* Journ. Boston Zool. Soc., II (1883), p. 32. 
t I And that the following southern species have been recorded from Eastern Massa- 
chusetts during the very cold winter of 1882-83 Flock of six Sialia sialis ( lob Bul- 
ieun Nuttall Club, VIII, 1883, p. 149) ; two Molothrus ater (Spehnan, ibid. p. i 2I ) • 
and a De ndroeca (Brewster, p. I2 o). See also Auk, I, t88 4 , pp. 294, 29V 
and Bulletin Nuttcill Club, IV, 1879, p. 118 ’ 
