Brewer's Changes in our North American Fauna. 51 



Esq., of London, to a specimen which he had fully identified as tho 

 true European Larus canus. Its label indicated that it had been 

 taken on the coast of Labrador in 18G0 by Dr. Elliott Cones, — 

 given by that gentleman to the Smithsonian collection, — and that 

 it had been labelled by him some seventeen years ago as Larus 

 delawarensis. It passed into the possession of Mr. John Krider of 

 Philadelphia, by him was sold with other skins to a dealer in Lon- 

 don, where, fortunately for the preservation of the record, it was 

 found, identified, and secured by Mr. Saunders, who had at once 

 recognized it as indisputably the European Sea-Mew. As Mr. 

 Saunders has announced his intention of restoring the specimen 

 where, in his judgment, it properly belongs, to the Smithsonian col- 

 lection, if any doubt is felt as to its identity, there will be full oppor- 

 tunity for testing it. It is regarded by Mr. Saunders as the only 

 authentic instance, on record, of the procuring the true L. canus in 

 North America. 



^Igialitis hiaticula. Ringed Plover. The capture of one of 

 this species, a female, by H. W. Feilden, of the British Arctic Expedi- 

 tion of 1875-76, under circumstances that leave no doubt it was 

 nesting in the neighborhood, places it once more, and this time be- 

 yond dispute, among the birds of North America.* The individual 

 in question was taken August 4, 1875, on the beach bordering the 

 valley of the Twin glacier, in Buchanan Strait, latitude 78° 48' N. Its 

 more or less common presence in Greenland has been known for some 

 time, as also its being migratory, in high noi'thern latitudes, and there 

 breeding ; occurring there, according to Hewitson, from March to 

 October, and, according to Linnaeus, reaching even the Lapland Alps. 

 Scoreslrv, in his Journal, mentions having met with this species on 

 the eastern coast of Greenland, and more recently other arctic ex- 

 plorers have observed them on the western coast of the same island, 

 at Prince Regent's Inlet and at Hecla Cove. Professor Newton is 

 authority for its breeding generally throughout Greenland, and for 

 its being also found on Sabine and Clavering Islands. It is stated 

 to be abundant on the shores of Possession Bay as well as Regent's 

 Inlet. It was taken by Professor Torell on the Seven Islands, in 

 latitude 80° 45' N., which was, before the recent British expedition, 

 the highest known range of any shore bird. Since then Strepsilas 



* Wilson includes " Charadrius hiaticula" among American birds, but his ex- 

 ample was, without question, the semipalmatus in its spring plumage. 



