i8S6.| General Notes. 28 1 



There is one specimen in the National Museum collection that doubtless 

 deserves special mention in this connection. The label thereof reads as 

 follows : 



"66,643. Geothljpis trichas Jad. No. 104. Cleveland, Ohio, May ii, 

 1S74. J. S. Newberry, M. D. Large testicles stt^ted to have been found. 

 Given to Smithsonian Institution by E. Coues." 



Taken by itself the label presents nothing remarkable, but tied to the 

 leg of this particular bird it affords us one of those by no means uncommon 

 ornithological puzzles, which, in the language of Dundreary, "no fellow 

 can find out." The bird is in the full spring plumage of the female, with- 

 out a single trace of black or ash about the head. — Charles Wickliffe 

 Beckham, Washington, D. C. 



Unseasonable Birds on Long Island. — i. Galeoscoptes carolinensis. — 



On December 30, 1SS2, while passing along one of the streets of our village 

 — Fort Hamilton — my attention was arrested by a bii-d note, familiar yet 

 strangely out of place at that season — none other than the character- 

 istic cry of the Catbird. I caught sight of the bird a moment later, hop- 

 ping about in the branches of a lilac bush in a private yard, not a dozen 

 feet from me, so that there was no error in the identification. 



2. Oidema perspicillata. — During a week's stay at Montauk Point, 

 from July 15 to July 21, 1883, I saw on several occasions a flock of 'Sea 

 Coots' floating on the ocean about 250 or 300 yards from shore. To 

 which of the three species they belonged I could not tell. On June 12, 

 1884, I saw a flock of at least fifty 'Sea Coots' in the Lower New York 

 Bay, off Coney Island, but the distance was too great to determine the 

 species; but on the 20th of the same month, while sailing in Gravesend 

 Bay, about two miles below Fort Hamilton, we came upon three individ- 

 uals of O. perspicillata. We ran down to within 20 yards of them be- 

 fore they took wing, but as the gun had been left at home, in deference 

 to the ladies, I was unable to secure them. 



3. Harelda glacialis. — While yatching in North Oyster Bay, Long 

 Island Sound, on July 12, 1884, I shot a fine male 'Old Wife.' The bird 

 was apparently well and uninjured, and was swimming about in a lively 

 manner as we approached. My first shot either missed or only wounded 

 it slightly, for it instantly rose and was flying off rapidly when I killed it 

 with my second barrel. I skinned it. and could not find any marks of 

 old wounds or other injuries. It was in full plumage and differed from 

 the adults usually taken in this latitude by the greater amount of orange 

 brown on the back and scapulars. The dark zone on the OTeast was also 

 of a lighter shade than usual. — De L. Berier, j^ Broadivay, Neiv Tork 

 City. 



Two Additions to the Texas Avi-fauna. — I have taken in Cook Countj', 

 Texas, the following : Syrnium nebiilosiim alleni, Turdus fuscescens salici- 

 cola. — G. S. Ragsdale, Gainsville, Texas. 



