98 General Notes. 



maries, which measure 1.16 inches in length, the wing measuring 3.15 

 inches. Through the kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, I have examined the 

 Vireos of this species in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, and find in aseries of about seventy specimens tour more cases of 

 the same variation. They are as follows : No. 23,281 (Coll. M.C.Z., from 

 Coalburg, W, Va.) with spurious primaries on both wings measuring 1.17 

 inches (wing, 3.23) ; No. 23,274 (Coll. M. C. Z., same locality), with a 

 spurious primary only on the left wing, measuring 1.10 inches (wing, 2.92) ; 

 No. 4285 (Coll. M. C. Z., from Newtonville, Mass.), with spurious primaries 

 on both wings, measuring 1.09 inches (wing, 3.02); and No. 4793 (Coll. M. C. 

 Z., same locality) with a spurious primary on the left wing, measuring 1.15 

 inches, the wing measuring 3.21. It may be well to say that they are not 

 the first primary coverts, but are true spurious primaries, lying in the same 

 plane as the other primaries, and differing from the spurious primaries of 

 other species of this family only in being somewhat smaller. This varia- 

 tion seems particularly interesting from the fact that the presence or ab- 

 sence of a spurious primary has been to some extent taken as a basis of 

 classification in this family. — Charles F. Batciielder, Cambridge, Mq#8- 



The European Widgeon (Mareca pendope) m the United States. — 

 I take great pleasure in noting the capture on the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States of two specimens of Mareca pendope, which I am assured 

 have not been recorded. 



One is in the collection of Mr. Geo. X. Lawrence, who has kindly given 

 me the facts concerning its capture, as far as known ; the other in my 

 own. The first, which is a fine adult male, Mr. Lawrence said he pro- 

 cured from a gunner who captured it on the coast of Virginia, in 1855. 

 My specimen, an immature male, I procured in Fulton Market, N. Y., 

 January 6, 1873, and as far as I could ascertain, it came from Southamp- 

 ton, L. I. — N. T. Lawrenck, New York. 



Tiik Sn art-tailed Finch (A mmod ,-n in w ocmdacutvfi) in Maine. — 

 Dr. Brewer strangely misquotes me on page 48 of the presenl volume of 

 the " Bulletin," in reference to the Sharp-tailed Finch (Ammodramua ca%- 

 dacutus). In my note to which he refers, no mention is made of the cap- 

 ture of a "single" specimen in Scarboro', Me., nor indeed of the capture 

 of any specimen at all. What 1 did say (see Bulletin, Vol. II. p. 27) 

 was that I had found the species a rare inhabitant of a part of Scarboro' 

 Marsh. 



Late iii October, 187(5, I observed a dw individuals of tin's species on 

 Pine Point, — a sandy strip of land which forms the seaward extremity of 

 the great Scarboro' Marshes. Aside from the fact that this was consider- 

 ably to the east of their previously known range, I was surprised to tind 



theni here, for 1 had carefully examined the I'oint and it- vicinity, at 



other seasons of the year, without detecting a single specimen. Accord- 



