Vo ' 89 v; VI ] General Notes. 1 79 



I have never known of a specimen taken before on the Kankakee 

 Marshes. As they do not appear in any numbers at the southern end of 

 Lake Michigan until early in December, an unusually early record is one 

 killed at Calumet Heights, Ind., near the lake shore, on Oct. 29, 1898, by 

 Dr. A. W. Harlan. — Ruthven Deane, Chicago, III. 



White-winged Scoters (Oidemia deglandi). — I am informed that a 

 large flight of adult White-winged Scoters going south was seen at 

 Cohasset, Massachusetts, Oct. 2, 189S. The birds were flying high, with a 

 gentle southeast wind. A dense fog in the afternoon prevented them 

 from being seen, up to which time the flight continued. — George H. 

 Mackay, Nantucket, Mass. 



Gallinago major versus Gallinago media. — In 'The Auk,' for April, 

 1897, Dr. Coues sets forth the proper claims of the Greater Snipe to a 

 place in the A. O. U. Check-List, to which it has accordingly been 

 admitted by the Committee (Auk, Jan., 1859, XVI, 105), under the name 

 Gallinago major (Gmelin). But as Dr. Coues himself admits, major is 

 not the earliest name for the species ; yet in spite of this he urges its 

 adoption, — a clear violation of the law of priority. Scolopax media 

 Frisch (Vorst. Yog. Deutschl., 1763, pi. 228) as also Gallinago jnedia 

 Gerini (Orn. Meth. Dig., 1773, IV, 59, pi. cdxlvi) seem to apply to this 

 bird, and although I have not been able to verify these references, there 

 is apparently no valid reason for rejecting the specific name they 

 impose. Even should this not be so, media must still be used for the 

 species, since Scolofiax media Lathajn, Gen. Syn. Suppl., 17S7, I, 292, is 

 of undoubted pertinence, and antedates Scolopax major Gmelin by one 

 year. — Harry C. Oberholser, Washington D. C. 



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

 la/a). — I have for a number of summers noticed that the local shore bird 

 gunners at Newport and Jamestown, R. I., speak of two sizes of Pectoral 

 Sandpipers or, as they call the bird, Kreikers. They go so far as not only 

 to say this is a big or little Kreiker after the bird is in hand, but say here 

 comes a big or little one as the bird is seen flying toward the blind. I 

 have just examined a large series, fifty specimens, from throughout the 

 range of the species including both spring and autumn birds, in regard 

 to this point of size and find that twenty-five females average : Wing, 

 4.95; tarsus, 1.05; and bill, 1.07; and twenty-five males: Wing, 5.45; tar- 

 sus, 1. 11 ; bill, 1.1 2; or, that in the males the wing averages .50, the tarsus, 

 .06, and the bill .05 larger than in the females. Mr. II. B. Bigelow, who 

 has taken a great number of these birds, calls my attention to the fact that 

 the little and big, that is females and males, flock together and that the 

 little birds always appear in the autumn a week or so before the big 

 ones; the latter has not been my experience. I cannot find a manual 



