<I>Ammodromus nelsoni</I> in Iowa

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276

^General^Notes. \j\u\

lefttheship of her

own

accord,shealwaysimmediatelyfell behind,and seemedtoexperience greatdifficulty inregainingit.

Eachtime sheleft the ship she seemed tohave harder

work

toget back,and at last, when,after a restof nearly twenty minutes in the shelterof aheapofsail,sheonce moredarted astern,sheseemedto find her strength failing, and

made

adesperate attempt toreach the ship again. After struggling for

some

minutes, flying with a weak heavy flight,totally differentfromthat of thedaybefore,andall thetimelos- ingground, she finallydisappeared inthe fog, and

we

never sawher again.

This was at about ten in the

morning

of April 20, off northern Virginia.

— Gerald

H.

Thayer,

Scarborough,N. ^1'.

Pinicola enucleator canadensisand Tryngites subruficollis in Illinois.

—

Itisseldom, indeed, thatIllinoisisfavored withavisitfromthePine Grosbeak,there beingto

my

knowledge onlyone previous published record ofitsoccurrenceinthe State. Mr. Harrison Kennicott

(who

by the

way

isa

nephew

of Mr. Robert Kennicott,whose

name

isafamiliar one

among

ornithologists) informs

me

by letter, inwhich he kindly gives

me

permissiontopublishthis note,thaton the 15th of February, while hewas outshootingrabbitsinthewoodsnear'TheGrove,'

Cook

County, he came acrossan unfamiliar bird

among

a flock of Juncos, whichatfirst sightresembledaShrike inform. His^firstshotbrought

it

down

and aftercareful study ofNuttall's ^'Manual'he identifieditas a

young

male Pine Grosbeak.

He

laid itaside to send in for farther comparison but unfortunately the favorite familycat gotholdof itand destroyeditcompletely, eating everything,even tothe head andwings.

Ibelievethis

may

belookeduponas astraggling southern record directly attributable tothe exceedingly cold wave whichprevailedat thattime, being the coldestweather, withasingleexception,inthe historyof the State.

A

bird which is perhaps almost as infrequently met with by the ornithologists of the State as theforegoingone is the Buff-breasted Sandpiper(Tryngitessubruficollis). Itwas onSept.18,1S98,thatahead was handed me, then in a macerated condition, whichI was able to identifyatonce asthat of T. subruficollis. Mr.Chas. Bandlerwhile out shooting'Plover theday previous had

come

on apot hunter

who

was roastinghisgame,consisting of thespecimen here recordedand another one (which was mutilated beyondpositive recognition, butwhich was believedtobe the same),inhis campfireand muttering because of his poorluck.

The

head,which wasall that was available, Mr. Brandler picked up and itis

now

in the Field Columbian

Museum

collection, recordedasfrom Calumet Lake,

Cook

County,Illinois.

— Wm, Alaxson

Bryan, Chicago,III.

Ammodramus

nelsoni in Iowa.

—

I

am

unable to find anyrecord of theoccurrence ofthis species in ourStateand itgives

me

pleasure to

(2)

V_°!'8*VI

] GeneralNotes.

2JJ

say thaton Oct.12,1S94, a beautifuladult maleacceptedan invitation from

mv

gun tojoin

some

of his cousins in

my

collection.

The

bird was shot in an old stubble field bordering the Iowa River, opposite Regens Park, Iowa City, Iowa, and is entered as

number

796ⁱⁿ

my

catalogue.

— Paul

Bartsch, SmithsonianInstitution, Washington,D.C.

Nelson's Sparrow

(Ammodramus

nelsoni) at Toronto,Ontario.

— On

the 22dof September,1894,whilstIwas Snipeshooting near Toronto,I noticed several smallSparrows,flittingout of therushes before

my

dogs, whose

manner

offlightwas

new

tome.

Two

ofthese I shot andfound

them

tobe ofthis species,

—

thefirst Ihad ever seen or heard of in the Province. Duringthe remainder of that

autumn

I kept a sharp look- outfor

them

butsaw no more.

On

the 10th ofJune,1895,Isawa small bird flying up the shore of Lake Ontario fromeasttowest; itwasthen about thirty yards high, but asitneared themarshattheeasternendofAshbridge's Bay,itgradually lowered as if intending toalight. However, I killed it. This was a femalewith ovaabout as large as No.12 shot; inthe

autumn

of that yearIsawonlytwoothersthoughIwatchedforthemcarefully.

In 1S96I sawonly one andthat was on the 28th of October. This birdwasin amarsh about three miles from where I haveseen all the others.

Duringthe

autumn

of 1897 none appeared until the 9th of October;

fromthatdate^untilthe 29thone or more wereseen everydaybut they neverbecame

common.

In the

autumn

of 1898 the first appeared on the 23dof September,

when

Isaw one; onthe24th severalwereseen,andfromthat time until thefirstofOctobertheywerequite

common

; onsomedavsImust have seenfiftyorsixtyofthem.

They

frequentjustonespotinthemarsh andare,owingto theirsecre- tive habits,ratherdifficult to find;

when

driven out of one clump of rushes they rlv afew yards and drop intoanother,whichaffords

them

perfect concealment. ^Ihavenot vetheardoneofthem utter a call note or achirpofanykind.

Since IfirstsawthemIhavelooked forthemcontinuallythrough the springand

summer

months,but with the exception of thefemale taken on the 10th of June, 1895,I have failed to find any.

—

C.

W.

Nash,

Toronto,Canada.

Capture of the Black Seaside Finch

(Ammodramus

nigrescens) in 1889.— Mr.

Chapman's

noteonthisspecies (Auk,

XV,

1S9S,p.270) states that it had not apparently beenmet withsinceitsdiscoveryin 1872,by Mr.Mavnard,tillfound byhimselfin 189S. Ithencegives

me

pleasureto report

my

capture ofapairnear Indianola, Florida,

March

3and5,18S9.

Indianola issituated almostoppositeCocoa, on Merritt Island. While