Letters, Announcements, ^c. 113 



no specimen of Podiceps cristatus is knoivn to have been ever 

 taken in North America ! Mr. Ridgway^ eleven years ago, 

 saw what he then supposed to be this bird ; but no specimens 

 were procured, and subsequent explorations have failed to 

 confirm his hypothesis. He saw birds that may have been P. 

 cornutus, or P. occidetitalis, or P. clarki, or P. griseigena ; but, in 

 the universal absence of P. cristatus, there is now no reason for 

 believing that they were what he then supposed. Audubon 

 tells us how common was P. cristatus on our western rivers ; but 

 now-a-days no one finds it there, only P. griseigena. Dr. Coues 

 cites P. cristatus in his ' Birds of the North-west ;' but he now 

 concedes that it is not known to be North- American. And 

 even my very accurate and careful friend Mr. C. Hart Mer- 

 rian, in his admirable ' Review of the Birds of Connecticut/ 

 published less than a year ago, gives this bird as a resident in 

 " tlie land of wooden nutmegs," on the authority of such 

 usually reliable gentlemen as W- W. Coe, J. H. Sage, and 

 Dr. Wood, and of some eight (alleged) examples. Upon my 

 calling his attention to the doubt, Mr. Merrian "reconsidered" 

 his opinion, having ascertained that, without exception, they 

 were all examples of immature P. griseigena. And this has been 

 my universal experience. In every instance where specimens 

 have been taken they prove to be not P. cristatus. When the 

 genuine article is forthcoming, I shall be ready enough to 

 " reconsider my verdict ;" but till then I prefer to believe that 

 its presence in any part of America is " not proven." 



Yours &c., 



T. M. Brewer. 



Habits of Trogon surucura. — The following notes on a Bra- 

 zilian Trogon are extracted from Mr. T. P. Bigg-Wither's 

 interesting work lately published"^. Skins kindly submitted 

 to us by Mr. Bigg- Wither have enabled us to identify the 

 species as Trogon surucura, Vieillot. 



" The habits of the Suruqud are peculiar. Their principal 



* Pioneering in South Brazil : Three Years of Forest and Prairie Life 

 in the Province of Parana. By Thomas P. Bigg-Wither. Two vols. Lon- 

 don (Murray) : 1878. 



SER. IV. — VOL. III. 1 



