206 General Notes. eae 
have erred in over emphasizing his work, without specifying a type for the 
new name found necessary. It is however, evident from the same paper, 
that I had for study a specimen of the bird. Since Naumann did not 
indicate a type for his figure and description, and since a new name had to 
be given the bird to which his description applies, I consider the specimen 
which I had in hand, really the convincing element in the consideration, 
(number 86019 of the United States National Museum, from Spitzbergen) 
to be the type of Fratercula arctica nawmanni.— ArtHUR H. Norton, 
Portland, Maine. 
The Possibility of Puffinus bermudz Nichols & Mowbray in the 
North Atlantic.— An old Shearwater skin presented by G. A. Boardman 
in 1867 to the Boston Society of Natural History, now M. C. Z. 73408, 
taken on the coast of Maine or New Brunswick by Dresser, was originally 
determined as Puffinus puffinus (Briinnich). Recently Mr. R. C. Murphy 
compared this specimen with the type of P. f. bermude Nichols & Mowbray, 
and found it very similar. 
It therefore seems reasonable to suspect that former records of the 
Manx Shearwater in the northwest Atlantic might really have been this 
Bermuda form.— W. SpracuE Brooks, Boston Society of Natural History. 
Sooty Tern in New Jersey.— On September 7, 1916, I obtained an 
adult female Sooty Tern (Sterna fuscata) at Corson’s Inlet, Cape May 
County, New Jersey. This specimen, which is in perfect adult plumage, 
was resting in the long grass in the sand dunes, a very short distance back 
from the beach. It was very tame and allowed me to get quite close before 
flushing. This specimen is now No. 2817 of my collection— WHARTON 
Huser, Gwynedd Valley, Pa. 
Coloration of Down in Adult Ducks.— It is not impossible that the 
writer has been alone in his ignorance of the fact that in a goodly number 
of ducks there is a great difference in the color of the down during the winter 
and the summer months. My observations of summer down have been 
taken entirely from the nests accompanying sets of eggs in my collection, 
which would seem beyond a doubt to furnish correct data. These nests 
contained eggs only of the duck under discussion, which makes it almost 
a certainty that the down could have come from no other species (I specify 
this for the reason that it is not uncommon in some localities for two or 
more species of ducks to lay in the same nest). Down from winter females 
has been used in all comparisons, as it seems unlikely that the males would 
contribute to the nesting material. 
The down seen in nests of the Mallard (Anas boschas) found in April 
and May is many shades darker than the down on birds of this species 
shot in October, November, and December. In the winter it is a very ight 
brownish gray, while in the summer it is changed to a dark, sooty brown. 
