General Notes. 



345 



I returned to the ground June 10, and put in the day examining the nests, 

 etc., collecting two more sets of two eggs each. One of the sets was 

 nearly ready to hatch, but with care I was able to save it. The eggs are 

 all white, or rather bluish white, without markings or shell stains. It 

 having rained nearly every day since the commencement of the month, 

 the two last sets collected are somewhat soiled and stained by the wet 

 leaves in the nests. The eggs measured by sets as follows, viz.: ist, 

 *-55 X 1.33, 1.52 X 1.36; 2nd, 1.76 X 1.48, 1.65 X 1.35; 3d, 1.70 X 1.39, 

 1.56 X 1.35; 4th, 1.70 X 1.37, 1.6S X 1.30; 5th, 1.75 X 1.30; 6th, 1.54 X 

 1. 31, 1.45 X 1.24 ; 7th, 1.70 X 1.38, 1. 68 X 1.43. The old nests had a few 

 leaves for lining in addition to the leaves attached to the twigs used in re- 

 pairing the same, but the new ones appeared to be without additional 

 leaves. They were all built either in the forks from the main body, or in 

 the forks of the larger limbs of the cottonwood and elm trees, and were at 

 least from ten to a hundred rods apart, were not bulky, and when old 

 would be taken for the nests of the common Crow. They ranged in height 

 from twenty-five to fifty feet from the ground. — N. S. Goss, Tofeka, Kan. 



The Merlin {Falco azsalou) in Greenland. — We have recently received 

 from Dr. C. F. Wiepken, of the Museum of Oldenburg, Germany, a fine 

 specimen of Falco asalon Lath., from Greenland. This makes an addi- 

 tional species for the fauna of North America, I believe. 



The record is as follows : "Falco cesalon Lath. $ juv. Shot at Cape 

 Farewell, Greenland, May 3, 1875." It is iesalon without any question — a 

 young of the preceding year. We got it with other specimens from the 

 same locality through Dr. W. , and I have no reason whatever to doubt the 

 correctness of the label, as of the hundreds we have received from him I 

 have not as yet detected any discrepancies, and the labels are usually much 

 more minute than the above. Gov. Fencker, who was stationed at God- 

 havn, Greenland, as Governor when I was there, told me he had occasion- 

 ally seen a small Hawk between Julianshaab and Gothaab, but had failed 

 to secure a specimen. These were probably F. cesalon. — Ludvig Kum- 

 lien, Public Museum, Mihvaukec, Wis. 



Notes on Melanerpes formicivorus bairdi in New Mexico. — To-day is 

 the 6th of August (1887), and while out collecting at a point some two 

 miles from Fort Wingate, New Mexico, I shot and secured a fine adult 

 male specimen of this Woodpecker, and in unusually good plumage for 

 this time of the year, with few or no pin-feathers present to speak of; a 

 feature wherein it differed from a number of other Picidse taken on the 

 same occasion. Having collected birds in this locality for the past two 

 and a half years without ever having seen a specimen of this Woodpecker 

 here before; and in view of the fact that our 'Check List' gives its habitat 

 and range as "Pacific Coast Region of the United States, east into Arizo- 

 na, south into Mexico," I desire to make this record here of its capture in 

 the Territory of New Mexico, and at a point further east than, so far as 

 the writer is aware, it has ever been noted before. At the present writing 



