I 7 6 General Notes. Anat 
shire. — Central New Hampshire has recently been visited by some rare 
birds for the locality. White-winged Crossbills (Loxta leucoptera) have 
previously been watched for in vain for thirty years by one of our best bird 
students, but he found them in comparative abundance this year and they 
have been seen by many other observers. Doubtless there have been stray 
individuals of this species here before, but their numbers at this time are 
particularly worthy of note. 
A stranger visitation, however, has been a flock of Arctic sea birds. 
The last of November, 1899, a.friend brought me a bird for identification 
that had been caught alive on land several miles from water, but it lived 
only a few days in captivity. I found it to be a Briinnich’s Murre (Ur¢a 
lomvia). Soon I learned that three others had been shot on one of the 
bays of Lake Winnipesaukee. The finest specimen was mounted, but the 
other two were used for the purpose of testing Gen. Greeley’s statement 
that their flesh was excellent —the best flavored of any of the Arctic sea 
fowl, The report of the New Hampshire sportsmen was that roasted Murre 
tasted about as much like fowl as a smoked herring tastes like fish. 
Still another Briinnich’s Murre was seen to fly into a brush heap at 
Franklin Falls, where it was easily captured, uninjured. The captors, 
supposing they had a young Loon, took the bird to Webster Lake, three or 
four miles away, and, tying a string to the bird’s leg, they hoped to ob- 
serve some interesting feats in diving. In this they were disappointed, 
but the bird swam so vigorously that the string was broken and the bird’s 
liberty was almost gained when, I am sorry to add, a shot from a gun 
ended its career. 
Several other Briinnich’s Murres have been reported and, so far as I can 
learn, it is the first time they have been taken here. 
It has been said that if, by mischance, this bird should alight on land, 
it cannot always rise on wing to make its way by flight back to water. Is 
this statement correct? — ELLEN E. WEBSTER, Franklin Falls, N. H. 
Ontario Bird Notes.— Gavia arctica. BLACK-THROATED Loon.—A 
female was taken on May 22, 1899, off Mimico (a suburb of Toronto), in 
Lake Ontario. The bird is in immature plumage, slightly abraded; the 
only previous record for Toronto is that of a pair sent to the Paris Exhibi- 
tion of 1867. 
Phalacrocorax carbo. CORMORANT.—A male was taken in Ashbridge’s 
Bay, Toronto, on November 21, 1896. The bird was evidently starving 
and in a very bedraggled condition; it was killed with a brick by some 
boys. The Double-crested Cormorant is a regular migrant but this is the 
first true Cormorant I have seen from Toronto. 
Histrionicus histrionicus. HARLEQUIN DucK.—A female was taken at 
the Eastern Sandbar, Toronto, on October 20, 1894. The Harlequin Duck 
can be regarded as only a straggler on Lake Ontario. I have the records 
of three more specimens taken here in recent years; two immature males 
and a mature female. 
