198 



General Notes. [April 



GENERAL NOTES. 



An Egg of the Great Auk. — Mr. Symington Grieve of Edinburgh, in a 

 recent letter to Capt. J. W. Collins, announces the discovery of one more 

 egg of the Great Auk, "this time in a museum kept in the tower of an 

 English parish church. The egg was labeled 'Penguin,' and the owner 

 of the museum was under the impression tiiat it was the egg of one of 

 the Penguins of the southern hemisphere, until in reading an article in 

 one of the magazines he observed that the Great Auk also was known as 

 the Penguin in the American localities that were frequented by the bird. 

 lie had the egg examined by experts who pronounced it undoubtedly an 

 egg of Alca impennis. From all that can be discovered of its history it 

 appears in all probability to have come from Newfoundland." — Frederic 

 A. Lucas, Washington^ D. C. 



Wintering of the Canvasback in Arizona. — Tiie winter resorts of this 

 Duck along the Atlantic coast appear to be much mc>re accurately deter- 

 mined than those of either the interior or the west coast of our country. 

 It may he worth recording that the Duck is extremely abundant on vari- 

 ous water-courses in Arizona during the winter. A party of my friends 

 who went duck-shooting in January on one of the tributaries of the Rio 

 Verde, not far from Fort Whipple, saw "thousands" of Canvasbacks, and 

 killed about a hundred. Few ducks of any other species were noticed. 

 The market in Prescott has been supplied with Canvasbacks all through 

 the winter, together with various other Ducks, among which I have noticed 

 Green-winged Teal, Sprigtail, Widgeon, Shovelers, Mallards, Gadwalls, 

 and Scaup. A few Swans and Geese also have been brought in, together 

 with manv thousands of Gambel's Quail. The latter, the most charac- 

 teristic game bird of Arizona, still abounds in the immediate vicinity of 

 Prescott, and is taken with comparative ease when the snow is on the 

 ground, though under ordinary circumstances they are among the most 

 difficult of all birds to shoot on the wing with any hope of making a large 

 bag. Their habits in this respect have not improved since I described 

 them in 'The Ibis' about twenty-five years ago. — Elliott Coues, i^or/' 

 Whipple, Arizona. 



The Pacific Eider in Kansas. — I desire to announce the capture of a 

 young male of the Pacific Eider {Somateria v-nigra). This specimen 

 was killed by A. L. Weidman, a hunter, about six miles from Lawrence 

 along the Kansas River. I think this is the first instance of the capture 

 of this species in the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. The 

 measurements of the specimen are as follows: length, 25.50 inches; ex- 

 tent of wings, 41.00; wing, 11.75; tail, 4.75; culmen, 1.80; tarsus, 2.35; 

 middle toe and claw, 3.25. — F. H. Snow, Laivrence, Kansas. 



