2'lv) Geucral Notes. (April 



ten miles north of the Mexican boundary. These specimens consist of 

 males and females in nearly equal number, and furnish material for a very 

 satisfactory account of the species, which will form the subject of a special 

 paper soon to appear in the 'Bulletin' of the American Museum of Natural 

 History. The paper will be illustrated with a colored plate, giving figures 

 of both sexes. In this connection I will therefore merely state that the 

 original specimen on which the species was based proves to be rather ex- 

 ceptional in certain features, most of the specimens before me showing a 

 more or less well-marked white superciliary line, which is quite absent in 

 the type. The female proves, rather curiously, to be scarcely distinguish- 

 able from the female of Coliiius virginiauus texantis., differing less froin 

 this than the latter does from the female of C. virginiauus verus. 



Great credit is due Mr. Brown for his efforts, in securing these specimens 

 he having sent out collectors on several different occasions especially in_ 

 quest of the species.— J. A. Allen, y4w. Miis. Nat. Hist., Nczv 7'ork City. 



Discovery of the Breeding Place of McKay's Snowflake {Plectrof/ie- 

 tiax hvferborens^. — In the January 'Auk' (p. 135), I mentioned the fact that 

 the breeding range of this species was "not polar," but on the other hand 

 "considerably south of the Arctic Ocean," at the same time intimating 

 that I was not at liberty to explain the nature of the evidence upon which 

 the statement was based. Since his return from an extended cruise on 

 the U. S. Revenue Cutter 'Corwin,' Mr. Chas. H. Townsend has given 

 me permission to publish the facts bearing on the case. On the 8th of 

 September, 18S5. Mr. Townsend, with others of the 'Corwin's' party, 

 landed on Hall Island, in Bering's Sea (lat. about 60^30' N., long. 173° 

 W.), a small island lying just north of St. Matthew's Island. Although 

 the greater portion of the daj' was consumed in the hunting of polar bears, 

 a 1600 lb. specimen of which was shot and skinned, Mr. Townsend had 

 time to get a small number of birds, two of which were Plcctrofhcnax hy- 

 fcrborciis, one of them a young bird in first plumage, though full-grown, 

 the other, an adult just moulted into the fall plumage, the moult in fact 

 not quite complete. These specimens will be described in the current 

 volume (Volume IX), of the 'Proceedings' of the U. S. National Museum. 

 These birds were fairly abundant on the island, but much scattered, not 

 having yet collected into flocks. Mr. Townsend regards it as very proba- 

 ble that on St. Matthew's Island, less than five miles to the southward, 

 and many times larger than Hall Island (being, in fact, about thirty miles 

 long, and mountainous), the species may have its centre of abundance. The 

 occurrence of P. hyperboreus in winter at St. Michaels and at Nushagak, 

 points on the Alaskan coast to the northeast and southeast, respectively, 

 from St. Matthew's and Hall's Islands, and not at Point Barrow or other 

 portions of northern Alaska, is thus accounted for. It is a very singular 

 circumstance, however, that the Snowflakes breeding on the Prybilov 

 Islands, only two hundred miles to the southward, are P. >iivalis, as is attest- 

 ed by numerous specimens brought from St. Paul's and St. George's by Mr. 

 Henrv W. Elliott, and from Otter Island by Mr. Townsend. It would be 



