Vol- jxvii] Q^^^^^i ^Y^^gg 339 



Snow Geese and Swans on Currituck Sound, North Carolina. So long as 

 conditions remain the same, the birds being very wary, and having little 

 market value there is no incentive to kill them, nothing occurring dur- 

 ing their stay in the United States will materially lessen the numbers, 

 nor even interfere with the increase of these fine birds. However, if they 

 should become an object of pursuit, it is equally true that they would 

 diminish very rapidly. 



Specimens of Anas fulvigula maculosa were obtained at Belle Isle, La., 

 March 2, 1910. A male Anas tristis was apparently mated with one of the 

 mottled ducks. Some of the hunters of Louisiana urge an extension of 

 the open season on the plea that the Mottled Ducks leave the State in 

 winter. I may say, however, that all of the evidence of intelligent persons 

 living in the range of the species, confirms what has often been recorded, 

 namely, that the Mottled Duck is resident. They may be absent in winter 

 from localities they frequent even in large numbers in summer, but they 

 remain in the same general region. As one hunter expressed it "they 

 spread out." The bird is not well known among the hunters at large 

 over the State, from the fact that the range is limited to a narrow strip 

 along the coast. They have heard of it, however, under the names of 

 Summer or Mexican French Duck, or Mallard, and as they get no such 

 duck when shooting, jump to the conclusion that it migrates before the 

 hunting season. Hence the clamor to get at it. — W. L. McAtee, Bio- 

 logical Survey, Washington, D. C 



Another King Rail in Massachusetts. — Mr. Richard M. Russell shot a 

 Iving Rail {Rallus elegans) on Sandy Neck, West Barnstable, Mass., on 

 December 30 or 31, 1909. This is I believe the ninth record for the State. 

 The bird was very emaciated when shot, and quite tame. Mr. Russell 

 has deposited the specimen, mounted, in this Museum from which it will 

 be transferred to the Boston Society of Natural History. — R. Heber 

 Howe, Jr., Thoreau Museum, Concord, Mass. 



Knot {Tringa canutus) Wintering in Massachusetts. — The winter rec- 

 ords of our shore birds are so scanty that any new addition should be 

 very welcome, and in this connection I want to record the taking of two 

 Knots at Chatham on Dec. 31, 1909 — the very last day of the year. A 

 friend of mine to whom the birds were sent identified them, which he 

 described as being in the immature gray plumage and in as good condition 

 as fat young birds killed in the early fall. A party from Chatham were 

 out after rabbits on Monomoy Island near the flats and marshes which the 

 shore birds frequent in summer, when these two birds flew by. As they 

 were thought to be Black-bellied Plover the corresponding whistle was 

 given, whereupon both birds wheeled about, and as they came nearer 

 they were seen to be Knots. They were shot and both fell on sohd ice. 

 As the last week'in December was bitterly cold, in fact the coldest part 



