The some years since in May. This, I believe, forms the second authentic instance of its capture in this state. Two were taken in Lynn, April 21st, 1852, by Mr. S. Jillson.* NORTHERN WAX-WING. Ampelis garrulus Liun. visits of this beautiful northern species so far south are very infrequent, and in only a few instances has it been recorded from this state. It has been taken, however, in Connecticut by Dr. Wood. I am also informed by Mr. S. Jillson, that eleven specimens were taken by him in Bolton, in this state, in January, 1864. A specimen has been seen the present autumn (October, 1869), in Cambridge, by Wm. Brewster. SOLITARY VIREO. Lanivireo solitarius Bon. This species formerly supposed to be more properly a spring and autumn visitant than a summer resident, seems to breed not unfrequently at some localities. Dr. Brewer says it is as common in summer about Roxbury as any of the Vireos, except perhaps the Red-eyed. WHITE-EYED VIREO. Vireo Novaboracensis Bon. As stated in my Catalogue, this species is much more common in the eastern part of the state than in the western. Like some other species, it is much more common during some years than in others. Dr. Wood has found three nests at East Windsor Hill during the last ten years, but he considers it rare there. Mr. C. W. Bennett obtained the first specimen I have known found in Western Massachusetts in May, 1867, at Holyoke. I killed a pair the last week in July in Springfield, in 1868. These I believe are the only ones. as yet known from that portion of the state. In 1868 it was quite common in and about Cambridge, but this year I have not observed it. LOGGERHEAD SHRIKE. Collurio Ludovicianus Baird. (Lanius excubitoroides and L. elegans Swain). This species, as observed by Dr. Coues,† was formerly given as a bird of New England, but deeming the authority to be highly ques *F. W. Putnam, Proc. Essex Inst., Vol. i, p. 224. tionable, I omitted it from my Catalogue. As Dr. Coues remarks, New England is beyond its usual range; the nearest point heretofore given where it regularly occurs is Hamilton, C. W., where, according to Mr. Charles McIlwraith, it is not a very rare summer resident.* Mr. Charles Linclen informs me that he has this year obtained the birds and a nest containing six eggs at Buffalo, N. Y. Its occasional occurrence in New England hence becomes more probable. On several occasions the so-called Collurio excubitoroides has been confounded by local observers with the Collurio Ludovicianus, and with very good reason, since they are undoubtedly the same. Specimens from the upper Mississippi valley, where the habitats of the two supposed species join, are with difficulty referred to the one rather than to the other. In habits and every particular, except in some minor differences of coloration, the two are quite alike. In fact no one seems to have insisted very strenuously on the specific distinctness of C. Ludovicianus and C. excubitoroides (or of C. elegans from the latter) though they have usually been presumed to be distinct. I have collected the birds in question in Western Iowa, Illinois, and in Florida; according to authors those from the first two localities should belong to C. excubitoroides and those from the latter to C. Ludovicianus. The differences between them are exceedingly slight. Specimens of the so-called C. Ludovicianus from the South Atlantic states differ from others from California and Iowa called C. excubitoroides not more than specimens of the latter from New Mexico do from Iowa ones, or than the two supposed species do in the average, and less than specimens from near the assumed line of junction of their respective habitats. Audubon, it seems to me, very properly regarded them as a single species. It seems to be rare in the Atlantic states north of Washington, but in the interior reaches the Saskatchewan valley, and extends westward to the Pacific, and south to Mexico. In avoiding the * Birds of Hamilton, C. W., Proc. Essex Inst., Vol. v, p. 87. North-eastern states it resembles the Eremophila alpestris, or Horned Lark (in the breeding season), Myiarchus crinitus (Great-crested Flycatcher), Centurus Carolinus (Redbellied Woodpecker), Melospiza Lincolnii (Lincoln's Sparrow), Zonotrichia leucophrys (White-crowned Sparrow), and some other species that extend much farther north in the interior than on the Atlantic coast. The Horned Lark is not known to breed regularly on the coast much, if any, south of Labrador, but in the interior it breeds abundantly on the prairies as far south as Missouri, and even in Texas. Some of the other species mentioned above do not extend farther. north on the coast than New Jersey, except as stragglers, although in the interior they reach the Saskatchewan. The climate there is certainly not warmer than that of Southern New England, and some other cause must be sought to explain such an unusual distribution. RED-BELLIED NUTHATCH. Sitta Canadensis Linn. The known instances of this bird's breeding in Massachusetts are very few. Five years since, when my Catalogue was published, I knew of none, and gave it as a winter visitant, having then seen it only during the colder portion of the year. Mr. Jillson has informed me that he found its nest a few years since in Bolton. Dr. Brewer also informs me that he saw it on his place in Hingham, in July, 1867, but was unable to find its nest. Many experienced collectors of birds in Southern New England have never met with it here in summer, but it is known to breed (perhaps only among the Alleghanies) much farther south. PINE GROSBEAK. Pinicola eneucleator. (P. Canadensis Cab.). This northern bird has occurred within the state several times within the last five years. During the last two winters they were quite common at certain localities, but were not generally distributed. As usual, they were chiefly young birds. It seems to be of late a more regular visitor than was formerly supposed. PURPLE FINCH. Carpodacus purpureus Gray. Common in summer in many parts of the state, and the number that breed here seems to be increasing. They usually select evergreens for their nests, and appear to more often build in the cultivated shrubbery of the towns than elsewhere. They are almost as unsuspicious as the proverbially familiar Chipping Sparrow (Spizella socialis), they often placing their nests in the hedge-rows that border frequented walks. I learn from Mr. B. P. Mann that he has repeatedly found their nests in such situations, and Mr. R. B. Hildreth has observed the same fact at Springfield. This familiar habit in the Purple Finch of California has obtained for it the name of House Finch, and it was supposed to differ greatly in this respect from the Purple Finch of the Atlantic states, before the breeding habits of the latter were so well known. It differs in this respect not apparently from the eastern bird, nor in any other way to any essential degree, specimens from California in the Museum of Comparative Zoology being quite indistinguishable from others from Massachusetts. Hence its distinctive name of frontalis becomes properly a synonym of purpureus. For the past two winters I have observed individuals of this species at frequent intervals in Cambridge, and Mr. Bennett has observed it at the same season about Mount Holyoke. By far the greater part, however, go farther south at this season. Nearly all observers in Southern New England that I have met remark that this bird has greatly increased there during the last ten years; especially is it more numerous in the breeding season. PINE FINCH. Chrysomitris pinus Bon. But a single instance of the breeding of this bird in Massachusetts has come to my knowledge-that mentioned in my Catalogue. The present year, however, they were quite common in Cambridge till the last of June, and on two or three occasions I observed them during the first half of July. I felt sure at one time that they would breed here, but if they, like the Yellow Bird (Astragalinus tristis), breed very late in the season, they may have retired in July farther north for this purpose, as I did not meet with them later in the season. This is very probably the fact, since Mr. William Brewster found this species breeding in August this year at Gorham, New Hampshire. RED-POLL FINCH. Egiothus linaria Cab. During the past five years this little northern visitor has been several times very numerous in Massachusetts. It was especially so during the winters of 1866-'67, 1867-'68, and quite so in 1868-'69. A series of skins in the collection of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, collected in this state by Mr. C. J. Maynard, represent four of the so-called species of this group recently recognized, -the common E. linaria, the supposed larger Mealy Redpoll, E. canescens Aud.,=Æ. epilipes Coues, the E. rostratus, and the E. fuscescens, described as a new species by Dr. Coues.* From a careful examination of many specimens, from the far north, as well as from Massachusetts, I cannot consider these forms as distinct species, since the differences on which they are based are very inconstant, and connected by endless intermediate stages. The extreme forms to which these several specific designations have been applied are quite different from each other, and if the differences were constant might well be regarded as distinct species. But, as already stated, the diferences are not constant, and it is almost impossible to draw a separating line between these several so-called species.† RED CROSSBILL. Curvirostra Americana Wilson. This bird, as is well known, is very irregular in its visits to this state, not only in respect to numbers but in regard to the season of its appearance. It is generally most numerous in winter, but is sometimes more or less common throughout *See his "Monograph of the Genus Ægiothus," Proc. Phil. Acad. Nat. Sci., Nov., 1865. On this point see farther my "Notes on the Birds of Iowa, Illinois, etc.," in the Memoirs of the Boston Society of Natural History, Vol. i, pt. iv, p. 515 (foot note). |