222 General Notes. [£§ 



compared with the types of both Pterodroma fisheri (Ridgway) and Ptero- 

 droma gularis (Peale), as well as with other pertinent material. What- 

 ever the ultimate disposition of the apparently unique type of Pterodroma 

 fisheri, it is certain that the two specimens from Alaska here mentioned 

 are properly referable to Pterodroma gularis. They are, it is true, lighter 

 and more greyish than the type of Pterodroma gularis, but not more so 

 than other recently collected specimens of this species, so that the differ- 

 ences exhibited are surely not more than individual variations. In accord- 

 ance with this identification, Pterodroma gularis should be added to the 

 list of North American birds. I have long suspected this, but have only 

 recently verified the identification through Dr. Oberholser. 



The use of the generic name Pterodroma Bonaparte (1856) instead of 

 Mstrelata Bonaparte (1857) has already been explained by Dr. E. Hartert 

 (Handlist Brit. Birds, 1912, p. 154), the date (1855) usually cited for 

 the latter proving to be wrong. — A. C. Bent, Taunton, Mass. 



Blue Geese on Long Island. — Long Island is quite out of the usual 

 range of the Blue Goose (Chen cozrulescens) , and I recall but one record for 

 that locality — 1893 — when Mr. Wm. Dutcher stated that there was one 

 specimen in the collection of the Long Island Historical Society, killed many 

 years ago by Col. Nicholas Pike. That bird was taken on Shinnecock Bay, 

 but the date does not seem to be known. The record appears in ' The Auk/ 

 Vol. X, p. 270. 



Within the last few years at least two separate captures of Blue Geese 

 have been made on Long Island, by Captain John H. Prentice, 307th 

 Infantry, while shooting geese over live Canada. Geese decoys. Capt. 

 Prentice, at Montauk, L. I., in November, 1911, killed a single Blue Goose, 

 which came in over his decoys. The following year (1912) in the month 

 of October, five Blue Geese came in, and all were secured. In the captures 

 of each year one or more of these birds was sent to the taxidermist Thomas 

 Rowland, in Sixth Avenue, New York, where I saw them. One of them was 

 apparently a bird of the year without any white patches. Two of the 

 specimens were preserved and are now mounted in Capt. Prentice's house 

 at Montauk. 



The line of migration of the Blue Geese is usually given as through the 

 Mississippi Valley, and I believe that, in these days, stragglers in other 

 regions are seldom encountered. — Geo. Bird Grinnell, New York City. 



The Whistling Swan at Cap St. Ignace, ? P. Q. — On October 11 last, 

 a flock of seven swans (Olor columbianus) was seen on the beach of the 

 south side of the river St. Lawrence at Cap St. Ignace, about forty miles 

 below Quebec. All these birds have been shot and six of them have been 

 sent to me in the flesh to be stuffed. It is the second record of the presence 

 of the bird in our province, that I know of. They were quite tame and 

 seemed to be starved so that the hunters easily shot them. — C. E. Dionne, 

 Quebec, Canada. 



