Vol.XVIII-l General Notes. 107 



1901 I ' 



On November 3, 1900, my son took a Purple Sandpiper (Tt-inga mari- 

 tima) in Ashbridge's Bay. There were three in the flock, and the other 

 two have been since taken. 



On September 1, 1900, a Yellow Rail {Porzana noveboracetisis) was 

 taken at Toronto and brought to me alive. It is thriving, and it is very 

 interesting to hear its different calls. — ^J. H. Ames, Toronto, O^itario. 



Sexual Difference in Size of the Pectoral Sandpiper ( Trivga macu- 

 lata). — In connection with my note in ' The Auk ' (Vol. XVI, April, 1S99, 

 p. 179), I have lately run across the following reference which seems of 

 interest. Fi-om John Murdoch's account of the birds observed at Point 

 Barrow, Alaska (see Lt. P. H. Ray's Report of the Expedition, 1885, p. 1 1 1) 

 I quote the following: " There is frequently a great disparity of size 

 between the two sexes. A comparison of the large series w^e collected 

 shows that the average length of the female is about three quarters of an 

 inch less than that of the male, but that the smallest female was fully an 

 inch and a half shorter than the largest male. The difference in size is so 

 marked that the natives noticed it and insisted that the small females 

 were not Aibwfikia, but Niwiliwilfik {Ereunetes pusillns.) " Certainly 

 such facts should be in our manuals. — Reginald Heber Howe, Jr., 

 Long-wood, Mass. 



Great Gray Owl in Wyoming. — During the latter part of last month, 

 September, 1900, in company with my brother, the State Engineer, I 

 visited the Alpine Lake region of the western slopes of the lofty Wind 

 River Mountains. On the 26th we were at the hunting lodge of Wm. 

 Wells, one hundred and fifty miles north of the Oregon Short Line 

 railroad. This lodge is known to the post office department as Wells 

 post office, and is the end of the mail route which carries the mail by 

 stage from Opal station three times a week. Among the trophies of the 

 hunt, with which the walls of Mr. Wells's lodge are decorated, I noted a 

 Great Gray Owl {Scotia^tex cinerea). The bird was one of the largest of 

 the species, the wing measuring 19! ins. and the tail 13 ins. 



Inquiry developed the fact that Mr. Wells killed the bird with his snow- 

 shoe pole in April, 1899. He stated the snow at the time was between 

 three and four feet deep and as he was returning home on his snoAvshoes 

 he saw the bird sitting in a low spruce tree not far from the lodge. He 

 approached easily, and knocked the bird from its perch with his snovvshoe 

 pole, as stated above. Mr. Wells said further that it was the first and 

 only owl of the kind he had seen during a residence of several years at 

 the lodge. 



I make this note because this is the first Great Gray Owl I have met 

 with in Wyoming. Two of the hunters' guides employed by Mr. Wells, 

 told me they had seen this owl in the mountains, but as they had never 

 killed the bird I am inclined to question their identification. However, I 

 think it quite probable the Great Gray Owl may be a rare winter resident 



