The vernacular name of <I>Plectrophenax hyperboreus</I>

(1)

'836.J General Notes.

135 The

Baltimore Oriole in Massachusetts in

November. ^On

Nov. _15, 1885, ^I shot a male Baltimore Oriole (^Icferus galbiila), in perfect plu-

mage

and condition,while feeding

upon

frozen apples ⁱⁿ an orchard. I

send thisaccountofthelateappearance ofthis bird, which usuallyleaves us inSeptember, thinkingthatit

may

be worthyofrecord in'TheAuk.'

—

Chas. E.Ingalls,

East

Templetou, Mass..

Icterus galbula inConnecticut in

November. — A young

male was shot in

my

dooryard Nov. 15, 1S85. Itwas in

good

condition and

showed

no

sign'sof ever having beencaged. It

was

seen about

my

grounds several daysprevioustothe abovedate.

—

Jno. H.Sage.Portland. Conn.

The

Vernacular

Name

of Plectrophenax hyperboreus.

— The

specific

name

of thisspecies was choseninconsequenceofthesupposition,recent- lyproven tobe erroneous, that "the

summer home.

... is probably the

unknown

region to the north of the Arctic mainland, since, at the ex- treme northern point of Alaska [Point Barrow] only the trueP. nivalis breeds."

The American

Ornithologists'

Union Committee

on Classifica- tion and Nomenclaturedecided

upon

'PolarSnowflake' as a

more

suitable

\'ernacular

name

forthe speciesthanthatof

McKay's Snow

Bunting,origi- nallybestowed

upon

^it: butsince

we now

havepositive evidence (the na- tLU-eofwhich I

am

notat present at liberty to explain)that its breeding liabitatisnotpolar,andisin fact considerablysouth oftheArctic Ocean,

Iwouldsuggestthatthespeciesbecalled

McKay's

Snowflake. "in

memory

of Mr. Charles L.

McKay, who

sacrificed his life in the prosecution of natural history investigationsinAlaska,andin

whose

collections the

new

species was first noticed." _{Cf. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus.. Vol. VII, pp.

6S-70.⁾

— Robert RiDGWAY.

Washiugton. D. C.

Ipswich Sparrowin Texas.

—

^I ^have ⁱⁿ

mv

collection an adultmale

Am-

modramiisJ^rincepa takenat Dallas,Texas, Dec. 10. 1884. 1obtained it

from Mr.Fred.T.Jencksof Providence,

who

^writes

me

in regard to itas follows:

-The

Ipswich Sparrow was purchased from the collector, Mr.

ClothriePierce, for aWestern GrassFinch,anditwassolabelled untilthe dayIpickedoutj'ourseriesofSparrows,

when

Idetected itstrueidentity'."

Thislargely extends the habitat ofthiscomparatively

new

species,hereto- foreonly recognized on the sand hillsof the Atlantic Coast.

—

Geo.

B.

Sennett, American

Museiitii of

Natural

History.

New

York.

Occurrence of the Ipswich Sparrow lyAmmodrainusprinceps) in

Nova

Scotia.

— A

short ti-i^eago Iforwardedto Mr.

Montague

Chamberlain of St. |ohn, N. P>., a Sparrowforidentification, and he has kindly returned

it witli the intimationthatitisanexampleof theIpswich Sparrow

{Am-

modramns

princeps).a birdwhich has never before been includedin our fauna. Ishotthe specimenwhileafter

Ducks

onthe Coast atLawrence- town, near Halifax,about the end of March. 1878. as it was feeding on