450 General Notes. [oct. 



of the year we find the following statement: "Les quatres pre- 

 mieres remiges noires sur les barbes exterieures et a leur bout, mais 

 blanches sur les barbes interieures; les trois suivantes cendrees en 

 dehors, et la point hlanchesJ'^ (Italics mine.) That a part of the 

 primaries are increasingly white tipped, and the secondaries largely 

 so in birds of the first year, is also shown to be true by Dr. Tac- 

 zanowski.^ The contrary is the case in Larus Philadelphia which 

 has all the primaries, and even the secondaries, broadly black 

 tipped, merely surmounted so to speak with small white spots. 

 Thus the posterior border of the wing is entirely black in the latter 

 species. In Larus franJclinii the outer five or six primaries, in this 

 plumage, are black on both webs.^ 



In view of this, unless it can be shown that Swainson and Rich- 

 ardson are in error, in their detailed statement, it seems that the 

 British x\merican record should be reinstated. We have still 

 one hopeless report to notice in closing. I refer to Temminck's 

 statement that " this bird appears also in Greenland."^ 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Red-billed Tropic-bird in Arizona. — In 'The Auk' for October, 

 1905 (Vol. XXII, p. 408), Mr. George F. Breninger recorded a specimen 

 of the Yellow-billed Tropic-bird taken near Phoenix, Arizona, in April, 

 1905. This bird, which, among others, was recently presented by Dr. 

 L. C. Sanford to the American Museum of Natural History, proves to 

 be a Red-billed Tropic-bird {Phaelhon cethereus). The dull yellowish 

 color of the bill, which doubtless led to the error in identification, is a 

 mark of immaturity, as is also the broad and unelongated pair of central 

 tail-feathers. 



Mr. W. W. Cooke informs me that there is no other Arizona record of 

 the Yellow-billed Tropic-bird. Hence the species must be removed from 

 the list of birds of that territory and its place taken by the Red-billed 



'Man. d'Orn., II, p. 788. 



2 Mem. St. Peter. Ac, VIII, S., XXXIX, ii, pp. 1043, 1044. 



3 Coues, Bds. Northwest, p. 6.5.5. 

 « Man. d'Orn., IV, 1840, p. 490. 



