220 General Notes. [Aprit 



The Chuck-will's-widow (Antrostoimis carolinetisis) in Massachusetts. — 

 In the month of December, 1884, I found, in the barn of Mr. Geo. A. 



Taplev, in the town of Revere, Mass., the dried skin of a bird which Mr. 



* 

 Taplev thought was that ofa 'strange Whip-poor-will.' The bird was intact. 



and at first sight one would suppose it to be a stuffed instead of a dried 

 specimen. Attracted by the large size of the bird, the yellow coloration 

 of the plumage, and other signs, I thought I had discovered a species new 

 to this State ; namely, the Chuck-will's-widow. or Southern Whip-poor-will. 

 On presenting the specimen to Mr. Allen, of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, tny opinion was confirmed. Mrs. Tapley says the bird was 

 caught in October by a cat. I need not say that I am greatly pleased with 

 having been the means of adding a new species to the list of Massachu- 

 setts birds. That the specimen was weak enough to be caught by a cat 

 seems to indicate that it may have been blozvn to our State by a gale. — 

 Fletcher Osgood. Chelsea, Mass. 



The Hawk Owl in Eastern Massachusetts. — Mr. Brewster's interesting 

 article on Surnia funerea in the last number of 'The Auk' (Jan., 1885, 

 p. 108) reminds me that I have in my notebook a record of an example 

 which I have neglected to make public. This, perhaps, should be done, 

 as it antedates, so far as I can learn, all previous records, when the year 

 is certainly given, for Massachusetts. 



The Hawk Owl is mentioned in Mr. Peabody's 'Report' of 1839, but 

 merely in a general way — "seldom wanders into New England." It does 

 not appear in Mr. Allen's "List' of 1864, but is given in his 'List' of 1878, 

 as 'very rare.' Mr. Babcock's specimen, noted in the 'American Natural- 

 ist,' 1869, was taken, as Mr. Babcock informs me, in 1862 or 1863. 



In January, t86o, a neighbor called with the request that I would come 

 and see a strange Owl he had just shot, and, being merely wing-tipped, 

 had put in a cage with the view of making a pet of him. I found it to be 

 of this species. His wing healed, and he became fairly tame, and on 

 occasional visits I found he bore confinement well, and his good appetite 

 made a constant demand on his keeper. This state of things continued 

 more than a year; but in the spring of 1S61, being exposed one night to 

 a sudden fierce and cold storm, which beat into his cage on account of a 

 change of wind, he was found the next morning dead under the perch. 

 He was brought to me according to request, but his plumage, of course 

 already injured by confinement, wa* in such a deplorable condition, from 

 the soaking and filth at the bottom of the cage, that my courage was not 

 equal to the occasion, and I reluctantly threw him away. — F. C. Browne, 

 Framingham, Mass. 



The Ptarmigan of Anticosti — a Correction. — In a recent paper * on 

 some birds observed in the Gulf of St. Lawrence I followed Verrill f in 



* 'Notes on the Birds observed during a Summer Cruise in the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence." Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. XXII, Oct. 3, 1883, pp. 364-412. 

 t Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Vol. IX, Dec. 1862, p. 138. 



