80 General Notes. [f^'^_ 



words more, door, you, your, yours, etc., about right when in fact thej^ say 

 maw, daw, yaw, yaw, yaws, etc. 



This most discouraging fact prevents us all from making any attempt at 

 the compilation of a text-book of bird songs for popular use; and there are 

 not phoneticians, musicians and elocutionists enough among bird students 

 to justify the publication of a work of that kind. 



Therefore, so far as I can see now, the best way for all bird students to 

 learn bird songs, besides identifying the birds themselves, is to visit the 

 wilds in company with experts. This, of course, " knocks out " the idea 

 of notation, except so far as one may devise a scheme for his own private 

 use.- — EwiNG Summers, Washington, D. C. 



The Tsrpe Locality of Brachyramphus craverii. — The Island of Na- 

 tividad, off the west coast of Lower California, has been considered as 

 the type locality of Brachyramphus craverii. The species was originally 

 described by Salvadori as coming from this island, and in his original 

 description he refers to the account that Craveri has left of his visit to the 

 Island in 1865. He speaks of it as a low island where were groups of 

 Cormorants looking in the distance like platoons of soldiers. He says that 

 the soil of this island was sandy, and that all of the island not occupied by 

 the Cormorants was excavated by the Murrelets for their nests. 



Anthony visited this island of Natividad in 1900, and found the Cormo- 

 rants there, as described by Craveri, and found the gi-ound honeycombed, 

 but these burrows all belonged to the Black-vented Shearwater (Puffinus 

 o-pisthomelas) , but not a single Mm-relet of any species was found on the 

 Island, nor has any one ever found Brachyramphus craverii anywhere along 

 the western coast of Lower Cahfornia. 



Craveri gives the latitude as 27° 50' 12" N., which is not at all the lati- 

 tude of Natividad Island, but is exactly the latitude of Isla Raza in the 

 Gulf of Cahfornia, and it seems probable that this latter island is really the 

 place from which the type specimen of Brachyramphus craverii was ob- 

 tained. 



Craveri was seeking for guano, and Isla Raza is a guano island, while 

 Natividad Island does not furnish any of this product. Salvadori speaks 

 particularly of Craveri having found the Murrelet nesting under the rocks, 

 which is exactly what Brachyramphus craverii does at the present time on 

 Isla Raza. Salvadori speaks twice of the type specimen of his bird as hav- 

 ing come from the Gulf of California. 



From the above facts it seems probably that there has been a mistake 

 in the type locality of Brachyramphus craverii. It is probable that Craveri 

 visited both Natividad Island and Isla Raza, and that Salvadori has made 

 a mistake as to which of these islands was the one on which Craveri obtained 

 the type of his Murrelet, and that Isla Raza is the real type locality of 

 Brachyramphus craverii. — ■ Wells W. Cooke, Biological Survey, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



