4-IO General Notes. [^ t k 



The California Partridge ( Callipepla californica) in Los Angeles 

 County, California. — In the A. O. U. Check-List for 1895, the range of 

 this species is given as : "Coast region of California, south to Monterey." 

 Mr. H. S. Swarth sent me some time ago several specimens of partridges, 

 which he labelled Callipepla californica vallicola, and among them there 

 is a typical californica. It was taken at San Fernando, Los Angeles Co., 

 Cal., on Oct. 1, 1901, and is No. 2152 of Mr. Swarth's catalogue. This 

 record extends the range of this partridge about 250 miles to the south- 

 ward. — Arthur T. Wayne, Mount Pleasant, S. C. 



The Ruff {Pavoncella pugnax) in Indiana. — The celebrated Kankakee 

 Marshes at English Lake, Indiana, have yielded records of several speci- 

 mens of the English Widgeon, but I can now record the capture of a still 

 rarer visitor from the Old World, the Ruff. While visiting the English 

 Lake Shooting and Fishing Club on April 12, 1905, 1 examined a number 

 of ducks and shore birds which had been killed that day by Mr. Wm. M. 

 Derby, Jr., of Chicago. The latter consisted principally of Summer 

 Yellow-legs and Pectoral Sandpipers, but there was one specimen in the 

 bag which puzzled me. Mr. Derby had been hunting ducks in the marsh, 

 and while moving from one point to another he fired into a flock of shore 

 birds which flew past his boat, killing several "grass birds " and the 

 specimen in question. Mr. Derby very generously presented me with 

 the bird, and after comparing it with several descriptions I felt assured as 

 to its identity, but I am under obligations to my brother, Walter Deane, 

 and Dr. Chas. W. Richmond who, after comparing the skin with other 

 specimens captured in North America, in the collections of William 

 Brewster and the Smithsonian Institution, pronounced it a typical Ruff, 

 though, as is so characteristic with the species, they differ somewhat 

 in size and plumage. The specimen was in moult, pin feathers being 

 conspicuous on the head and neck. On dissection it proved to be a male, 

 though the testes were but slightly developed. As a matter of reference 

 I append (p. 411) as complete a list of all North American captures as I 

 have been able to find. 



Dr. Richmond writes me that one of the specimens recorded by Board- 

 man in his list of 1862, "one or two instances," is in the Smithsonian 

 Collection. This is probably the first record for North America. In his 

 ' Catalogue of Canadian Birds,' Pt. 1, p. 177, 1900, Mr. John Macoun 

 records two specimens, a male and female, shot on Toronto Island, Ont., 

 but Mr. J. H. Fleming informs me that the female proves to be a Bartra- 

 mian Sandpiper. Mr. Macoun is also in error in giving the date of cap- 

 ture of the male as 1875, for it was taken in 1882, and is so recorded in 

 ' The Auk,' Vol. II, p. 336, 18S5, when at that time in the collection of 

 Mr. John Young of Toronto, Ont. 



