8o General Notes. \^ll 



•Avifauna Columbiana,' state (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. No. 26, 1883, p. 81) : 

 "It was rare in 1S62, having already responded .... to the encroachmeRt of 



the city upon its favorite haunts The only one we remember to have 



ever seen alive was in a piece of heavy timber known as ' Gales' Woods' ; 

 but that was about 1857 or 1S58." They state further : "Mr. Shoemaker 

 informs us that one was seen a year or two ago," which was in 18S1 or 

 1882. As there was no locality given with this last record, it is somewhat 

 difficult to say whether the bird recorded was seen within the District or 

 in the surrounding country, as the authors in listing the rarer species, 

 frequently gave records for the vicinity as well. However, giving the 

 record the benefit of the doubt, it is quite safe to assert that until the bird 

 forming the subject of this note made its appearance, the species had not 

 been observed for the past 21 or 22 years. — George W. H. Soelner, 

 Washi)igtoii, D. C. 



Empidonax griseus Brews t. = E. canescens Salv. & Godm. — In the 

 * Biologia,' II, p. 79, March, 1889, Salvin and Godman described 

 Empidonax canescens from specimens taken at Mexicalcingo and vari- 

 ous other places near the City of Mexico. 



In 'The Auk' for Ap^-il of the same year (p. 87), Mr. Brewster described 

 Empidonax griseus from specimens taken at La Paz, Lower California. 



The Biological Survey- Collection contains specimens of canescens from 

 near the type locality in the Valley of Mexico which have recently been 

 compared with the type by Dr. Sharpe and his assistant, Mr. Chubb, of 

 the British Museum, and pronounced to be identical with it. 



Before these specimens were sent for comparison with the type of 

 canescens they were compared by Mr. Brewster with the type of griseus 

 and pronounced to be indistinguishable. It follows, therefore, \.\\?i.\. griseus 

 and canescens apply to the same bird, and the latter name has a month's 

 priority. 



The range of E. canescens extends from southern Piiebla through the 

 Valley of Mexico northwesterly to southern Sonora, and from Cape St. 

 Lucas north through Lower California into southern California. — E. W. 

 Nelson. Biological Survey, Washington D. C. 



A Preoccupied Generic Name. — Mr. G. E. Shelley in Vol. Ill of his 

 'Birds of Africa' (London, 1902) founds a new genus Botha (to Louis 

 Botha) for a new species of Lark from the Orange River Colony, — Botha 

 difficilis. Nearly a century ago Rafinesque (Caratteri di Alcuni Nuovi 

 Generi, etc., 1810, p. 23) proposed the generic name Bothus ior flounders 

 allied to the European turbot (Pleuronectes). As these two terms (Bothus 

 and Botha) are practically almost identical, it would be better to drop 

 Botha and take for this Lark another generic name, for instance Dewetia 

 (to Christian De Wet, another gallant Oranjestaat chief). — S. A. Butur- 

 LIN, Wesetiberg, Esthonia, Russia. 



