352 General Notes. [joiy 



In November and December many Goshawks appeared at Hadlyme, also 

 many Great Horned Owls; the latter being very commonly heard and 

 seen until into February. The game keeper of a pheasant farm at Hadlyme 

 trapped and killed during the fall and winter up to March 10: 91 Great- 

 Horned Owls; 25 Barred Owls; 15 Screech Owls; 9 Long-eared Owls; 

 and 84 Goshawks, and from September 1916, to March 10, 1918, 74 Red 

 Shouldered Hawks; 60 Cooper's and Pigeon Hawks; and 35 Sharp-shinned 

 and Sparrow Hawks. 



The keeper placed eight Horned Owls in a wired enclosure and kept them 

 for some time during the month of January until they began killing and 

 eating each other. This was kept up until only two remained. They 

 were well fed all of the time they were in captivity on dead pheasants 

 killed by other hawks and owls, and Starlings were also shot for them. 



The Great Horned Owl has been fast nearing extermination in Connecti- 

 cut as a permanent resident. — Arthur W. Brockway, Hadlyme, Conn. 



Megaceryle vs. Streptoceryle. — In a paper on the Classification of 

 the Kingfishers (Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist., 1912), the writer showed that 

 the range of variation in size, form and coloration in the genus Ceryle, as 

 commonly recognized, is so great that the two subgenera of the A. O. U. 

 Check-List (1910), Megaceryle and Chloroceryle, should unquestionably 

 be given generic rank. Working independently, Mr. Bidgway (Bds. N. 

 & M. Amer., VI, 1914, p. 407), treated not only these two groups as full 

 genera but gave equal recognition to Streptoceryle, a segregate of Mega- 

 ceryle. The former includes the two American species M . alcyon and M . 

 torquata and the African M. maxima, while Megaceryle is restricted to the 

 two closely allied Asiatic species M. lugubris and M. guttulata. 



Mr. Ridgway separates Streptoceryle and Megaceryle on account of sup- 

 posed differences in the form of the bill, relative length of tarsus and inner 

 toe, and coloration. Regarding the character of the feet, I can find no 

 difference whatever, the relative length of the tarsus and toes being 

 remarkably uniform in all the species of the group. So far as general 

 coloration is concerned, the Asiatic species are not essentially differ- 

 ent from the African M. maxima which connects the former with the 

 American species. In fact, in the markings of the primaries the Old 

 World species are in close agreement with each other, while those of the 

 New World are decidedly different. The coloration of all the forms of 

 Megaceryle (sensu lato) may be considered of one diversified type as opposed 

 to the different styles of color or pattern seen in Chloroceryle and Ceryle. 



There remains as distinctive of Streptoceryle only the form of the bill. 

 This is somewhat more slender, with straighter culmen, the tip of the 

 maxilla more tapering and acute, and the gonys more strongly upcurved. 

 In view of the close resemblance in all other points of structure and the 

 essential agreement in size and coloration, I believe that Streptoceryle 

 may profitably be relegated to synonymy. It is significant that Bona- 

 parte in proposing Streptoceryle restricted it to the two American species, 



