MICROPALAMA HIMANTOPUS : STILT SANDPIPER. 211 



The same page yields also a note from Dr. Brewer 

 of the capture of a bird of this kind, July 25, 1878, by 

 Mr. Geo. H. Mackay at Nantucket (Bull, Nutt. Club, iv, 

 1879, p. 6s). 



Firmness is an admirable quality, but may be excess- 

 ive. We find the same author presenting the following 

 paragraph, in connection with which he carefully 

 notes very ntunerous cases of captures : " The past year 

 has brought with it no new fact of any moment, 

 bearing upon the history of this bird, certainly nothing 

 to establish any regularity as a migrant on the New 

 England coast, nor indeed on any part of the Atlantic 

 coast. Throughout Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 the entire coast of Maine as far west as Portland, it has 

 remained wholly unknown. From Scarboro, Me., to 

 Rye, N. H., we have no record of its having been taken, 

 and from Swampscott, along the entire coast of Massa- 

 chusetts to Provincetown it continues equally unknown. 

 During the past summer the only record that has 

 reached me of its occurrence was a single specimen 

 procured by Mr. Geo. H. Mackay at Nantucket, July 25, 

 1878 [as above noted]. This is the second example taken 

 in July in Massachusetts. So far as negative testimony 

 can ever be taken as conclusive, the absence of any data 

 in regard to the presence of this species in any numbers 

 on the New England coast continues to suggest that its 

 regularity as a migrant is still, and more than ever, a 

 thing not proven" (Pr. Bost. Soc, xx, 1879, p. 273). 



But enough must have been said to convince most 

 persons of the contrary of this- last statement. If not, 

 the reader is referred to Dr. Brewer's very interesting 

 and valuable paper entitled " Notes on the Occurrence 

 of Micropalama himantopus in New England" (Pr. 



