i 7 8 



General Notes. 



T Auk 

 L April 



it has a shorter wing and shorter tarsus, though its entire length is 

 greater; it has also a square tail instead of a forked one. It measures 

 seven inches and a half entire length: from the carpus to the end of 

 the wing, live inches and three quarters; tarsus, three-quarters of an inch. 

 I have called it Thalassidroma castro, as I am not aware that it has ever 

 been described before." (A Sketch of Madeira, 1S51, 123.) The specific 

 name is derived from that of " Roque de Castro," given by the natives. 

 The type locality is the Desertas Islands, near Madeira. — Cm as. W. 

 Richmond, Washington, D. C. 



Pelecanus occidentalis vs. P. fuscus. — Although " Pelecanus fuscus," 

 credited to Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, 1766, 215, has stood in our ' Check- 

 List' since 1886, a glance at the first-mentioned work -will convince any 

 one that Linnaeus used no such name. He divides Pelecanus ouocrofalits 

 into two varieties, a. orientalis, and p. occidentalis; under the latter are 

 cited the " Onocrotalus s. Pelecanus fuscus" of Sloane's 'Jamaica,' the 

 " Onocrotalus americanus" of Edwards, the "Pelecanus sub fuscus, gula 

 distensili" of Brown's 'Jamaica,' etc. The habitat of p is given as 

 " America," and the references belong mainly to the Brown Pelican of 

 Eastern North America. Varietal names, as used by Linmeus, were 

 italicized and designated by a Greek letter instead of a separate number, 

 but all such names were binomial marginal ones, and ought to be 

 recognized. If ornithologists accept this view our Brown Pelican should 

 stand as Pelecanus occidentalis; otherwise the P. fuscus of the ' Check- 

 List ' must be credited to Gmelin. — Ciias. W. Richmond, Washington' 



n. c. 



Old Squaw (Clangula kyemalis) in Indiana. — A few records have 

 been given of individuals taken in the State, and in all instances they 

 were probably blown inland by severe storms off Lake Michigan, where 

 they are usually abundant in the winter season. 



On Feb. 12, 1S99, during intensely cold weather, a flock of thirteen 

 was killed at English Lake, Ind., some thirty-five miles directly south of 

 Lake Michigan. There was no open water, except a small space, some 

 thirty yards square, where the ice had been cut and taken out for storing, 

 and here the flock suddenly alighted. They were evidently in an ex- 

 hausted condition, hunting for open water, as they paid no attention 

 to twenty or thirty men working around the hole and floating out the 

 ice, and only dove when struck at with pike poles. A gun was soon 

 procured, and the whole flock dispatched, and a male specimen was sent 

 to me. The following morning, February 13, three more Ducks of this 

 species attempted to alight in the same hole, which had been kept open 

 by the ice cutters, but a hungry Bald Eagle, who has a nest a half mile 

 distant, stooped to them, without success however, and they continued a 

 hurried flight over the frozen marshes. 



