Vol. XVlll-| General Notes. 271 



igoi J / 



An examination of Gmelin's work shows that lie used the name Larus 

 for the Gulls systematically throughout his ' Reise ' and only in one 

 instance makes use of the name Gavia. and in this case merely as a quasi 

 citation from Brisson, and having no reference whatever to Gavia 

 Mohring. The passage in which Gavia is used, so far as it has any bear- 

 ing on the case in point, is as follows: " Gavia ridibunda fhaenicofos. Die 

 Grosse Lach-Move. Sie ist von Brisson schon beschrieben worden, und 

 ich habe bey ihr nur zwey Anmerkungen zu machen. Die eine betrifft 

 den Unterschied des Geschlechts, und diese besteht in Schnabel. . . ." 



On referring to Brisson I find in Vol. VI of his ' Ornithologie,' page 

 196, that he describes a Gull to which he applies the name Gavia ridi- 

 bunda phaenicopos, to which Gmelin here refers. Brisson, however, did 

 not recognize a genus Gavia, but placed all the Gulls under Icarus, begin- 

 ning in every case his diagnoses "Larus supernae cinereus," etc., as the 

 case might require. Brisson's genus Larus is his genus "No. CII," under 

 which he has 15 species, the technical name of 5 of which begins with the 

 name Larus and the remaining 10 with the name Gavia, an eccentricity 

 not confined to the genus Larus, and of no nomenclatural significance 

 (see, for example, under Brisson's genus Anser, where Cygnus and Ber- 

 nicla are employed in place of Anser). 



The use of the name Gavia by Gmelin is merely in the sense of a refer- 

 ence to Brisson, he nowhere adopting Gavia in a generic sense for any 

 Gull. It is evident, therefore that by no fair construction can Gavia be 

 considered as established in a generic sense by S. G. Gmelin in 1770, and 

 that it, "therefore, must be considered as a mere synonym of Larus?'' — 

 J. A Allen, American Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



Occurrence of the Glossy Ibis at Washington, D. C. — A specimen of 

 the Glossy Ibis {Plegadis autumtialis) was shot by a hunter near Wash- 

 ington, D. C September, 1900, and brought to the taxidermist shop of 

 Mr. A. E. Colburn, to be mounted, where I examined it while it was in 

 the fiesh and absolutely identified it. 



So far as I can learn, this is the first instance of the occurrence of this 

 species in the District of Columbia. — John W. Daniel, Jr., Lynchburg, 

 Va. 



The Red Phalarope {Crymophilus Julicarius) on the Coast of South 

 Carolina. — An adult male of this far northern species was captured alive 

 near the town of Mount Pleasant, S. C, in an exhausted state, by Mr. 

 W. D. Hamlin on December 4, 1900, and presented to the writer. Upon 

 preparing the specimen I found it to be greatly emaciated, but the plum- 

 age was entirely unworn. As far as I am aware this is the most southerly 

 record of this bird for the Atlantic coast. — Arthur T. Wayne, Mount 

 Pleasant, S. C. 



