Auk 
Jan. 
64 General Notes. 
only white on the apical part of the first primary and birds having a 
black bar half an inch wide near its extremity. The non-existence of 
the so-called subspecies L. a. smithsonianus seems to be completely 
demonstrated. At the same time I had the opportunity of examining a 
large number of Kittiwake Gulls and found a greater variation in their 
primaries than in those of the Herring Gull. In both cases specimens 
examined for comparative purposes were adult birds. —OrA W. KNIGHT, 
Bangor, Me. 
The Occurrence of the Egyptian Goose in North America. —It gives 
me great pleasure to bring to the attention of the American Ornitholo- 
gists’ Union a specimen of the Egyptian Goose (Chenalopex e@gyptiacus) 
shot on Dec. 5, 1898, at Havre de Grace, Md. I received the bird in 
the flesh on the 10th, through the kindness of Walter T. Jackson of that 
place, who sent the following note with it:—‘‘Shot by John Simpers 
along shore 100 yards from Point Concord Light, Havre de Grace, Md. 
Two other birds of same species were seen the following day.” 
A few days later I visited Havre de Grace; John Simper was off on the 
‘flats, but everyone in that duck shooting town knew of the strange 
bird, so I had no difficulty in hearing of it. I visited the scene of the 
shooting, which was a small indentation in the shore, with considerable 
growth in it, and a marshy piece of ground at its head; here the bird 
was seen early in the morning, and John Simper went for his gun, came 
back and shot it. With regard to the two reported as seen next day, I 
heard several contradictory stories, and question the identity of the birds 
seen. 
~ The bird shot was in perfect plumage, and showed no signs of having 
ever been in confinement; the body, however, was emaciated to the last 
degree, and the stomach contained only two or three small gravel stones; 
the bird was evidently in the last stages of starvation, which would 
account for the remarkable tameness freely commented on at Havre de 
Grace. 
As far as I know the only other record for this species in North 
America, is of one taken at Canarsie, L. I., on Jan. 3, 1877, and recorded 
by John Akhurst of Brooklyn, N. Y., in the Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. 
II, April, 1877, p. 52. Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, in a letter to Mr. Akhurst, 
stated in regard to this specimen: “Its acquisition is worthy of being 
noted, and whether a straggler or an escaped specimen may be ascer- 
tained in the future.” Apparently this statement governed Baird, Brewer, 
and Ridgway in their note on the species (Water birds, p. 434), where 
they say ‘‘a common species in aviaries; so that it is altogether probable 
that the example in question [the Canarsie bird] was one escaped from 
confinement.” Bechm’s ‘Thierleben’ (Birds, Vol. III, 1882, p. 471), in com- 
menting on the occurrence of this species in various European countries, 
says practically the same thing, but the species is generally included as 
a valid one in the countries where it has been taken in a state of nature. 
