Last occurrence of Nyctardea var. Gardenii 236 MASS. (Middlesex Co.) 1875. Dec. 2 Clear still and pleasant day, Thur. 2° at Sunrise. Left the house about 3 P.M. and hastened up through the swamps taking Shot. Everything was frozen solid and the walking very good everywhere. Just across the R. R. track as I was entering the maple swamp a grouse rose within 20 yards of me; it was still as death but although I watched stopped the instant I saw the bird leave the ground I could hear not the slightest whirring of wings or sound of any kind and this in spite of the fact that the bird got up with more than usual celerity and went off with the usual swift direct flight. Pursuing or after it I came to Alver's brook which I found partly open left so by the warm sewage matter now discharged into it. While walking along its bank I saw sitting barely the sunny side of a large bush a bird which I took for a barred owl but which upon shooting, turned out to be a Nyctardea Gardenii. The mystery of its presence here so late was satisfactorily explained upon my picking it up when I found that one of the wings had been broken, and had healed in such a way that the wing tremble it could not be used in flight. The bird was in very good condition and had evidently established itself for the winter by the open ditch where it could obtain food. That a very low temperature can be endured by many of our summer birds is now well known and in this case the bird had probably