V ° L X S VII j General Notes 453 



Least Flycatcher in Michigan in April. — April 4, 1920, weather 

 cool, and many patches of snow still on the ground, Dr. Christofferson and 

 myself, while on a bird jaunt much to our surprise discovered a Least 

 Flycatcher. How the bird arrived here at such an early date is a mystery, 

 as it should not have been much north of the latitude of Washington. 

 This was just at the time of the severe storms accompanied by tornadoes 

 that swept the country to the south of us, and it is possible that the bird 

 was swept up and carried to this northern point in that way. 



The earliest date I can find for the Least Flycatcher is April 23, at 

 Petersburg. — M. J. Mageb, Saull Ste. Marie, Michigan. 



A New Name for Anairetes Reichenbach. — The generic name 

 Anaireles Reichenbach (Avium Syst., 1850, pi. LXVI), or as it is often 

 written, Anaeretes, is in common use for a group of South American Tyran- 

 nidae. It is, however, unfortunately preoccupied by Anaeretes Dejean 

 (Catal. Col., 3rd ed., 1837, p. 181) and, therefore, needs to be replaced. 

 It may be called Spizitornis (oxi^tTTQq, parus; opuiq, avis), nom. nov., 

 with Muscicapa parulus Kittlitz as its type. 

 The species of this genus are as follows: 



Spizitornis parulus parulus (Kittlitz). 



Spizitornis parulus aequatorialis (Berlepsch and Taczanowski). 



Spizitornis fernanalezianus (Philippi). 



Spizitornis regutoides (d'Orbigny and Lafresnaye). 



Spizitornis nigricristatus (Taczanowski). 



Spizitornis flavirostris (Sclater and Salvin) . 



Spizitornis agilis (Sclater). — Harry C. Oberholser, Washington, 

 D. C. 



A Raven Pellet. —In January of this year I picked up in a field at 

 Santa Cruz Island, California, a pellet presumably ejected by a Raven 

 (Corvus corax sinuatus). The pellet was three inches long with a diameter 

 of one inch. It was examined by Mr. H. C. Bryant, of the California 

 Fish and Game Commission, who writes: "Without pulling the pellet 

 to pieces I discovered the following elements ; parts of two Camel Crickets 

 (Stenopelmatus sp.); parts of grasshoppers; 20 seeds of Poison Oak (Rhus 

 diveratola); hulls of Wild Oats (Avena fatua) ." 



Mr. H. Harris, of Kansas City, Mo., who has kindly looked through the 

 literature for me for mention of Raven pellets, writes that the only refer- 

 ence he has been able to find is in Vol. II of the fourth edition of Yarrell's 

 'British Birds/ edited by Alfred Newton, where, on page 260, it is stated: 

 "A pair of Ravens known for many years to the Editor lived almost ex- 

 clusively on moles, as he had ample facility for determining from repeated 

 examination of the pellets of bone and hair which they, like so many other 

 carnivorous birds, cast up." Mr. W. L. MacAtee tells me that there are 

 no Raven pellets in the collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



