^OO General No/es. \]i»\y 



female RiitV near here on May 6, 1892. I was wadinijf a fresh water marsh, 

 not more than a mile from town, after marsh birds in general, and 

 while I was struggling through the mud, water and cat-tails, a Sand- 

 piper passed behind me. It had apparently flushed from a patch of bare 

 mud about twenty yards from where I then was, and I at once set it 

 down as a Lesser Yellowlegs, both from its size and its flight It uttered 

 no cry. After circling around the further edges of the marsh, it turned 

 and headed, straight as an arrow, to where I crouched, so that when shot 

 it fell in the water within reach of where I stood. I identified it as a 

 Ruff, and, to make sure, it was sent to Mr. Robert Ridgway who 

 promptly confirmed the identity. The bird was in fair condition, some- 

 what below the average of our spring shore-birds in this respect, but 

 not by any means poor. The ova were somewhat enlarged, the largest 

 being about the size of No. 6 shot. — H. H. Brimley, Raleigh, North 

 Carolina . 



Correction. — In my article on the Black-bellied Plover, on page 148 of 

 'The Auk' for April, 1892, speaking of the abundance of these birds in the 

 neighborhood of Tuckernuck Island, Mass., it re.^ds, "from a flock of 

 about twenty-five birds, which served as the nucleus, they continued to 

 increase until six to eight hundred had collected, the average number in 

 the spring for fifteen years previous being two to three hundred." It 

 should read, "They continued to increase until about two or three hundred 

 had collected. The average number in the s))ring for fifteen years previous 

 being about one hundred." On page 143 it reads, " The adult female is 

 rather smaller than the male." It should read, "The adult female is 

 about same size as the male. These errors are entirely my own.- — ^Geokge 

 H. Mackay, Nantucket, Mass. 



Lagopus lagopusin Maine. — A male Willow Ptarmigan in full winter 

 plumage wa.s shot at Kenduskeag, Maine (a village about eight miles 

 from Bangor), on April 23, 1892. It was brought into this city to be 

 mounted. The man who killed it reported that it showed little or no 

 alarm at his approach, and in fact seemed quite as tame as a domestic 

 fowl. This is, I believe, the first instance of this species being taken 

 in Maine, and will therefore probably be of interest. — Harry Merrill, 

 Bangor, Maine. 



Occurrence of the Black Gyrfalcon in Rhode Island. — I beg to report 

 the occurrence on November 22, i89r, of the Black Gyrfalcon {Falco 

 r/isticolns obsolefus) on the little island of Conanicut near Newport, Rhode 

 Island. The specimen secured was a female, in splendid black plumage. 

 It was shot while perched on a haystack on Capt. Audley Clarke's fann, 

 i.ot far from Jamestown, which is a seaside town right opposite Newport 

 on Conanicut Island in Narragansett Bay. The person who shot it 



