^ob General Notes. [October 



a fleshy protuberance or knob near the base of the upper mandible. 

 Upon looking up Cassin's description of the Cerorkina suckleyi, now- 

 known to be the young of the present species, and Dr Coues's account of 

 this bird in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1S6S, I find that the young 

 Horn-billed Puffin, just casting the downy plumage, is described as having 

 this same fleshy knob on the bill. As my specimens show that the knob 

 is present in winter, I am inclined to believe that the fleshy knob is really 

 entirely persistent, and is the matrix or core, so to speak, of the horny 

 excrescence, which latter is superimposed upon it only on the near ap- 

 proach of the mating season, and shed at its end, leaving a ' horn' behind, 

 though quite devoid of its horny sheath. In ordinary museum specimens 

 this tough membranous knob is not apparent, having so dried away and 

 shrunk to the bill as to have lost its distinctive character. 



It is to be hoped that California collectors will be able to furnish a 

 series of notes on the bill of this species, showing its character at the 

 several seasons. At present the matter cannot be said to be fully under- 

 stood. — H. W. Henshaw, Washington, D. C. 



A Crested Auk on the Massachusetts Coast. — While on a recent collec- 

 ting trip to Chatham, Mass., I was asked by Mr. A. W. Baker, an intelli- 

 gent and trustworthy gunner and fisherman of that place, to give him the 

 name of a bird killed at Chatham during the winter of iSS^-'Ss, which he 

 described as being very much like the Little Auk or Dovekie in form and 

 color, though a little larger, and having a tuft of narrow, pointed feathers 

 on the front of the head, curving upward and forward. From his minute 

 description of tne bird it was evidently one of the Little Crested Auks, 

 apparently Simorhynchus cristatellus — a bird he had otherwise never seen 

 or heard of, but which he very accurately described. That the bird was 

 one ofthe Little Crested Auks there can be no doubt. 



The occurrence of such a bird on the Massachusetts coast is of course 

 entirely accidental and surprising. We have, however, the Tufted Puffin 

 (Lunda cirrhata) recorded from Greenland and the coast of Maine, the 

 Black-throated Guillemot (Synthliborkamphus antiquus) from Wisconsin 

 (cf. Sennett, Auk, I, p. 98), and the Paroquet Auk {Cyclorr//ync//us 

 psittaculus) from Sweden, showing that these Northwest Coast species of 

 Alcidae are more or less given to wandering to points far remote from their 

 proper habitats. — J. A. Allen, American Museum of Natural History, 

 New York City. 



The Thick-billed Grebes (Podilymbus podiceps) Breeding in Kansas. — 

 B. L. Bennett and V. L. Kellogg of Emporia, Kans., both report finding, 

 May 26, 1885, in a pond or slough near the city, quite a number of the 

 nests of this bird containing from five to ten eggs each. — N. S. Goss. 

 Topeka, Kans. 



