Ho General Notes. rat 
recalls having seen ‘ White Herons’ in his locality fifteen years ago, but 
none since until the present summer. He writes: ‘‘ The two which I now 
have would eat from my hand a week or two after their capture. I now 
have them in a yard enclosed in wire netting with a coop eight feet high 
attached. I notice they sit in the uppermost part of the coop most of the 
time during the day unless called out to be fed; but when night comes 
they will leave the coop and sit in the open yard until morning.” The 
chief food of the Herons is small fish, with which they are kept abun- 
dantly supplied. Mr. DeMott has several other wild birds quartered in 
separate enclosures, including Black-bellied Plovers, Turnstones, and one 
Golden Plover, all in apparently excellent condition and comprising in 
all a decidedly interesting natural history exhibit. 
Cathartes aura.— The geographical distribution ot the Turkey Vulture 
is one of the most interesting facts connected with its history. Occurring 
regularly but a short distance south of our limits, and often seen even in 
the winter but fifty miles south of us (Trenton, N. J.), and being a bird 
of such well-known powers of flight, it yet so rarely occurs north of its 
recular haunts that it is as if a well recognized line demarked its limits, 
beyond which its occurrence is extremely singular. A bird of this spe- 
cies was shot at Rockaway Beach by Mr. R. L. Peavey of Brooklyn, on 
July 15, 1899, in whose fine collection of mounted birds it now is. 
Length of specimen, 29 inches; wing, 21 inches. 
Accipiter atricapillus. — An immature specimen of the American Gos- 
hawk, also in the collection of Mr. R. L. Peavey, was shot by him at 
Rockaway Beach, Dec. 18, 1898. 
Strix pratincola.— The Barn Owl is rare enough on Long Island to 
justify mention of each instance of its occurrence. The specimen here 
referred to was taken at Gardiners Island, and thus constitutes one of 
the more northern records for the species. Mr. E. B. Muchmore of East- 
hampton is the possessor of the mounted skin of this specimen. Here it 
was seen by the writer last summer (1899), and in reply to his inquiries 
concerning it, Mr. Muchmore writes: ‘It was picked up on Gardiners 
Island during the very severe weather of last March. It was very thin 
and had one foot broken. JI should not have tried to save the specimen 
if it had not been a stranger to me.” Ina subsequent communication in 
reply to an inquiry regarding the remote possibility of its having drifted 
ashore and hence involving a suggestion of other than natural causes for 
its presence here, Mr. Muchmore says that it was found away from the 
beach and that there were no indications of its having been washed 
ashore. He writes: ‘‘The Barn Owl spoken of was found away from 
where the water could possibly have washed it ashore; and, furthermore, 
its condition indicated that it had not been floating in the water.” 
Syrnium nebulosum.— The Barred Owl is rather rare on Long Island. 
The present record has to do with its occurrence as a bird of the city, 
my attention having been attracted to it by a crowd which gathered to 
observe the unfamiliar sight of a large bird in the heart of the city, 
