98 General Notes. [j a " n k 



As Ereunetes occidentalis is of frequent occurrence in the Atlantic coast 

 States, particularly in Florida, and evidently also in Cuba, and as the 

 name mauri, as given standing by Gundlach, antedates occidentalis by 

 eight years, it appears that Dubois (Synopsis Avium, p. 949) was quite 

 justified in bringing mauri forward as a substitute for occidentalis, and 

 the form should stand as Ereunetes mauri Gundlach. — J. A. Allen, Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



Additional American Records of the Ruff. — In 'The Auk' for October, 

 1905, pp. 410, 411, Mr. Ruthven Deane published a list of 16 American 

 specimens of the Ruff (Pavoncella pugnax). To this list at least six addi- 

 tions should be made, one for South America, two for Barbados, two for 

 Rhode Island, and one for Massachusetts. Five of these records have 

 already been published and for the privilege of recording the sixth bird, 

 a specimen from Massachusetts, I am indebted to Mr. Deane and Mr. 

 John E. Thayer. This specimen, a female, shot by Alfred Dabney on 

 Nantucket, late in July, 1901, was mounted, and is now in the Thayer col- 

 lection at Lancaster, Mass. 



The data for the early records of the Ruff leave much to be desired in 

 the way of completeness. Giraud in 1844 mentioned the fact that "the 

 Ruff, Wheatear, Skylark, and other foreign species have been found on 

 Long Island," but apparently thought that they were birds which had 

 escaped from captivity (Birds of Long Island, p. 309). The first positive 

 record of the species in America is probably that for Barbados, noted by 

 Schomburgk in 1848, instead of that for New Brunswick, published by 

 Boardman in 1862, as stated by Mr. Deane, but in neither case is the exact 

 date of capture known. The first record for North America is apparently 

 the Long Island note published by Lawrence in 1852 in the 'Annals' of 

 the Lyceum of Natural History. Prof. Baird in referring to the species 

 in 1858 said: "The ruff has been so frequently killed on Long Island as to 

 entitle it to a place among descriptions of North American birds, although 

 it can not be said to belong to our fauna" (Pac. R. R. Reports, IX, p. 737). 

 But the only bird in the list which represents those 'so frequently killed 

 on Long Island' prior to 1858, is the Lawrence specimen now in the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History. 



The southernmost record for the species is indefinite both as to date and 

 locality. It was based on 'an abnormally colored specimen' collected by 

 H. Munzberg in 'Spanish Guiana' and submitted for examination with 

 other specimens to Pelzeln, by H. E. Hodek, a taxidermist of Vienna. 

 Pelzeln's notes on Hodek's specimens appeared in 'The Ibis' for 1875, 

 but how much earlier the bird was killed is not known. In the Catalogue 

 of Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXIV, p. 506, Sharpe gives the locality 

 as 'Dutch Guiana,' but Pelzeln, who uses the term 'Spanish Guiana,' states 

 that it probably refers to the territory between the Upper Rio Negro and 

 the Orinoco or the adjacent part of New Granada. 



