1S87.I General Notes. ^S3 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Double-Crested Cormorant near Springfield, Mass. — A male 

 Double-crested Cormorant {Phalacrocorax dilophus) was taken at Long 

 meadow, four miles from here, May 6, 1887, in full breeding plumage. I 

 have not known ofonein this vicinity at this season of the year before, and 

 only twice before in the autumn. — Robert O. Morris, Springfield, Mass. 



The Florida Gallinule in Nova Scotia. — Mr. Watson Bishop, of Kent- 

 ville, has in his collection a Florida Gallinule {Gallinula galea ta) which 

 was taken near the Cornwallis River, N. S., on September 20, 1886, by 

 Mr. E. F. L. Jenncr. Mr. J. M. Jones reports that three other examples of 

 this species have been taken in that Province. — Montague Chamberlain, 

 St. John, N. B. 



The Middletown, Conn., Glossy Ibis of 1850. — In reference to the 

 Middletown specimen noticed by Mr. Browne in his paper on the -New 

 England Glossy Ibises' (Auk, April, 1SS7), I would say that the original 

 announcement by Dr. Barratt appeared in the Middletown, Conn., ' Sen- 

 tinel and Witness' for Tuesday evening. May 21, 1850 (Vol. XXVIII. No. 

 1430), and is as follows : 



"[For the Sentinel and Witness.] 

 "BLACK EGYPTIAN IBIS (A RARE BIRD). 



"CALLED ALSO GLOSSY IBIS, lb is falc iltella ■ 



"One of these rare birds, //it's falcinella, was shot at Middletown, on the 

 banks of the Connecticut, May 9th, time of a high flood. It is a male in full 

 plumage. Its length is twenty-eight inches,* and stands eighteen inches 

 high, bill five inches long, which is slender and curved. It has been care- 

 fully preserved, and is now in the cabinet of Dr. J. Barratt. 



"By the papers we learn that a similar bird was shot at Freshpond, 

 near Cambridge, Mass., on the 8th inst., and lias been presented to the 

 Harvard Cabinet of Natural History. 



"It is highly probable that these birds belonged to the same tlock, and 

 may have been driven to the south by the late storms, after crossing Behr- 

 ing's straits — having left the valley of the Nile in March, as we suppose. 



"The Ibis falcinella is very rarely seen in the United States. This is 

 the first that has come to our notice on the Connecticut, and has not been 

 known in this country many years. 



"The Prince of Musignano was the first to show that the bird called 

 Tantalus Mexican/is by Mr. Ord (the continuator of Wilson's Ornithol- 

 ogy), was the Ibis falcinella of Europe, a bird common in Egypt. 



" *NOTE. — Mr. Nuttall says length 23 inches, — that, I apprehend, is a typographical 

 error for 28. Turton in Brit. Fauna, p. 55, says length 2 ft. 6; extent of wings, 3 ft. 

 2 ; weight, 18 ounces." 



