218 General Notes. [£j* 



in fine plumage and provoked much interest among local sportsmen, as 

 nothing like it had been seen thereabouts before. It measured — length 

 34 inches, extent 45 inches, wing 12.25, tail 11, and bill, along the culmen, 

 3 inches. Last winter a farmer living in the valley a few miles below 

 here brought me a tail feather with a crimped web. It was from a darter 

 he had killed on one of the lagufias on the Arizona side of the river. Later 

 I saw and counted seven of them. As they were out of gun range I did 

 not disturb them. From what I can learn from people living near the 

 water the bird is not uncommon in that portion of the valley. 



I lived about twenty-three years in central southern Arizona and during 

 that time I remember having seen but two Fulvous Tree Ducks (Den- 

 drocygna fulva). They were brought to me from a lake near Buenos 

 Ayres, about seventy miles southwest of Tucson. Here I find them 

 fairly abundant during the winter months. In the spring of 1899 one was 

 brought to me for identification. It had been killed on a small patch 

 of water on the California desert. April 27 I counted 11 in one bunch 

 at the mouth of the Gila. October 12 of that year I saw a lone bird on 

 the mud flats in that same neighborhood. It was a male and was quite 

 thin in flesh. I have a record of having seen 27 in four years. When 

 feeding they thrust their mandibles deep in the soft mud on both sides 

 and in front of them as they walk along. 



May 5, 1899, 6 out of a bunch of 8 Autumnal Tree Ducks (Dendro- 

 cygna autumnalis) were killed on the Santa Cruz, south of Tucson. They 

 were the first and only ones I ever saw in Arizona. They were beautiful 

 things. I did not find anyone that had previously seen them in Arizona. — 

 Herbert Brown, Yuma, Arizona. 



An Arctic Record for the American White Pelican. — An American 

 White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) was taken on the shores of 

 Liverpool Bay, in the Arctic Ocean, in June or July, 1900, by an Eskimo 

 ' who skinned it, removing nearly every bone in the process. The bird 

 was secured there soon afterwards by the Rev. I. O. Stringer, now Bishop 

 of Selkirk, who brought it to Toronto, and through the kindness of Mr. 

 John Maughan the bird is now in my collection. Bishop Stringer tells 

 me the bird was new to the Eskimo. Liverpool Bay is in Lat. 70°, Long. 

 128°. — James H. Fleming, Toronto, Ont. 



Unusual Nesting Site of the Black Duck (Anas obscura). — During 

 the past two years I had the pleasure of discovering two instances of 

 remarkable deviation from the hitherto well known and universally 

 recognized nesting habits of our common Black Duck (Anas obscura). 

 The first instance occurred June 10, 1904, when, on a small island in the 

 St. Lawrence River, a pair of these ducks had taken possession of an 

 old crow's nest, and on the date of discovery had laid ten eggs. The nest 

 was saddled on a limb of a large elm, forty-five feet from the ground. 

 With the exception of a liberal supply of down furnished by the bird the 



