? I a General Notes. [J u| y 



appearance Of the bill alone. I have found that birds of 24.50 inches in 

 length or less are females, and those 25.50 inches or more in length are 

 males. No. 199, a female, which in Mr. Hen shaw's article is given as 26.25 

 inches in length, is an apparent exception. The longest bill I have meas- 

 ured was 3.20 (chord of culmen), and the shortest 2.13, the average being 

 2.50. The lores vary in tint from white to the color of the head, in both 

 sexes ; and I have seen January specimens with white lores, and June birds 

 with dark lores, and the reverse. — Walter E. Bryant, Oakland. Cal. 



The Western Grebe in Manitoba. — [n Coues's 'Key' I find the Western 

 Grebe (Podicef>s occidentalis) described as a bird of the Pacific Slope. 

 It: will then be not a little surprising to readers of 'The Auk' when an- 

 nouncement is made that this bird is common in Northern Manitoba- 

 After I had made the discovery for myself I was a little disappointed to 

 read the following in Professor Macoun's 'Report': "This bird [the 

 Western Grebe] seems to be altogether unknown in the interior, and yet 

 it has bred in thousands at Water Hen River. From time immemorial up 

 to the present it has only been known from the Pacific Coast." 



I examined specimens taken at Long Lake, Winnipeg, where it is com- 

 mon, and others from Shoal Lake, further north, where it is abundant. 

 Thus it will be seen that its numbers increase as we go north towards the 

 Saskatchewan Valley, for Water Hen River is much farther north still. 



The following completes my list of Manitoba Grebes : — 



Podicipes griseigena holbcelli. Red-necked Grebe. — Scarce. 



Podicipes cornutus. Horned Grebe. — Very common. 



Podilymbus podiceps. Dab-chick. — common. — Ernest E. T. Seton, 

 Toronto, Canada. 



Capture of Escaped Cage-birds. — Mr. Forrest Ball, of San Bernardino, 

 Cal., writes that on Jan. 12, 18S4, he took at that place ,- a Cockatoo Par- 

 oquet (Nymphicus novce-hollandio?). It was resting on a tall cottonwood 

 tree, basking in the sunshine, and was apparently perfectly at home in 

 its strange surroundings. As it is an Australian species, it was no doubt 

 an escaped cage-bird, but from its perfect condition it had, I surmise, 

 been out of captivity a considerable time. The specimen is now in my 

 collection." 



Mr. Joseph L. Goodale also writes me that on Nov. 2, 1884, he shot, 

 in the Belmont (Mass.) orchards, a Java Sparrow, '-which was lively and 

 in good condition." The capture of exotic, even tropical, species of birds, 

 more or less common as cage-birds, in various parts of the United States, 

 has been from time to time recorded, while other instances that have 

 never been published have come to my knowledge. Generally the birds 

 thus taken, even when captured in the colder parts of the year, are re- 

 ported as found in good condition, and as showing rarely any trace of 

 previous confinement. The fact that their natural habitat is generally 

 very remote — not (.infrequently south of the equator — and that they are 

 species often met with in confinement, seems sufficient evidence that they 

 are in reality 'escapes,' and therefore not to be counted as stragglers to 

 our fauna. Yet it is of interest to know that such species are so well 



