290 General Notes. \_a^^\ 



six Brant that kept separate from the large numbers of Black Brant in 

 Comox harbor ; after a hard bit of work I managed to kill one of them, 

 which proved to be an adult female of the Atlantic species. The others 

 were undoubtedly an old male and three young of the same species as 

 they all looked very light colored. The specimen secured is in everyway 

 typical bernicla, with interrupted collar, and sharply defined black breast, 

 against the pale grayish lower surface. It was very fat. 



I have since found that the Eastern Brant is a fairly common migrant 

 on the Pacific Coast. Since shooting the first specimen, I have killed 

 seven others, and have seen a number of small bands that, as a rule, keep 

 separate from the Black Brant. 



I should say about eight percent of the Brant in Comox bay are the 

 Eastern species. Only once have I killed both species out of the same 

 flock. There seems to be no tendency to intergradation, unless the unit- 

 ing of the neck patches in one bernicla might be so considered. This 

 was an adult male, in all other respects typical bernicla, and the collar was 

 barely united by the slightest white tipping. 



Actodromas acuminata. Sharp-tailed Sandpiper. — On the 4th 

 October I saw a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper with three Pectoral Sandpipers 

 near the mouth of Campbell River. I had no gun, so was unable to 

 secure it, but as I was within four yards, was able to identify it with 

 certainty. It was a young of the year with white supercilium and throat, 

 and warm huffy, slightly streaked jugulum. 



Pelidna alpina. Dunlin. — Atypical Dunlin taken the 5th December 

 out of a small troop of pacijica. This is a bird of the year with a few 

 feathers of first plumage left in upper parts. The crown and foreneck 

 are much more conspicuously streaked than in pacijica, the pectoral 

 band being nearly as heavily streaked as in maculata. Measurements 

 taken in the flesh: — $ , Length, 7.75; wing, 4.60; culmen, 1.35. 



Charadrius dominicus fulvus. — Pacific Golden Plover. — Whether 

 typical dominicus occurs on the Pacific coast is doubtful, but I have never 

 before taken such absolutely typical fulvus as some that I collected here 

 on and after the 3rd November. These are bright enough for the Euro- 

 pean species and I almost expected to find the axillars white. Two taken 

 the 4th November had already acquired some of the feathers of the 

 summer plumage on the mantle ; these are broadly margined, not 

 spotted, with bright yellow. 



Falco islandus. White Gyrfalcon. — A fine adult female White 

 Gyrfalcon was brought to me on the 4th December. It had been killed 

 by a boy with a 22 rifle. 



Falco peregrinus anatum. Duck Hawk. — So far this is the only 

 species of Peregrine I have been able to secure here. I expected pealei 

 to be the common form on Vancouver Island. 



Nucifraga columbiana. Clark's Crow. — I shot an adult female here 

 on the iSth February. This is a very rare straggler to Vancouver. 



Vireo huttoni obscurus. Anthony's Vireo. — This vireo evidently 



