394 



General Notes. [October 



bird. The other young escaped. On July 19 Mr. Gilbert caught one of 

 these young birds alive. It lived through the day, probably dying from 

 starvation, as enough caterpillars could not be found for it. The 

 adult female measured 18 inches in extent and 13 inches in length. 

 Its stomach, Mr. Gilbert says, contained the remains of caterpillars. This 

 is, I believe, the first record of the capture of this species in Washington. 

 — R. H. Lawrence, Portland, Oregon. 



Original Description of Lewis's Woodpecker. — This is found in the 

 'Journal' of Patrick Gass (12 mo., Pittsburgh, 1807, p., 224) ; consequently 

 four years before it was named Picus torquatiis by Wilson (Am. Orn. Ill, 

 181 1, p. 31, pi. 20, fig. 3), and seven years before Lewis and Clarke's own ■ 

 notice (Hist, of the Exped., ist Am. ed., II, 1814, p. 187). Gass was the 

 famous Irish Sergeant of the Expedition of i8o4-'6; his 'Journal' notices 

 many of the mammals and birds which we are in the habit of supposing 

 to have been first described in the narrative of his commanding officers 

 which did not appear till seven years after his own book. The 'Journal' 

 went through at least four American (1807, 1810, 1811, 1812) editions, and 

 an English one (1808). All the American editions were identical (pp. i- 

 viii, 9-262) and may be cited by pages indifferently. Gass describes the 

 bird thus: "... and woodpeckers of a different kind from any I had 

 ever seen before. They are about the size of the common red-headed 

 woodpecker; but are all black except the belly and neck, where the ends 

 of the feathers are tipped with a deep red but this tipping extends to so 

 short a distance on> the feathers that at a distance the bird looks wholly 

 black." The locality is the headwaters of Clearwater River, in the 

 Bitter Root Mountains, Idaho; the date of entry in the Journal is June 12, 

 1806. — Elliott Coues, Cranberry, N. C. 



Myiarchus nuttingi in Arizona. — During a recent trip through southern 

 Arizona, Mr. J. Alden Loring and the writer had occasion to stop at Tuc- 

 son for a few days. The objective point near that place was Rillito Creek, 

 which lies a few miles north of the town and which is, except during the 

 rainy season, a dry wash. It was visited on June 12, 1892, through the 

 kindness of Mr. Herbert Brown who, besides showing many other favors, 

 devoted the entire day to driving about among the groves of mesquit and 

 giant cactus, so we might collect what specimens we wanted. While thus 

 occupied we flushed a Flycatcher from an old Woodpecker's hole in a giant 

 cactus, and secured it, together with four fresh eggs. 



On comparing the specimen with the type in the National Museum it 

 proved to be Myiarchus nuttingi, a small southern representative of M. cin- 

 erascetis, a species not yet recorded from the United States. Subsequently 

 Mr. Loring took another female at Prescott, Arizona, on June 22, and in 

 the Department of Agriculture Collection there is still another female 

 specimen taken by Mr. Vernon Bailey, at Oracle, Arizona, June 15, 1889. 

 It would seem, therefore, that the species is not rare in portions of Ari- 

 zona. — A. K. Fisher, Washington, D. C 



