° 1914 J General Notes. 243 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Western Grebe in Ohio. — On Tuesday morning, October 28, 

 1913, while passing Lake Glacier in Mill Creek Park, near Youngstown, 

 Ohio, I observed a Grebe on the lake, which I was satisfied was the Western 

 Grebe, ^chmophorus ocddentalis. 



I consulted Mr. Volney Rogers, the Park Superintendent, and ho agreed 

 with me that the appearance of the Western Grebe in this locality was of 

 sufficient importance to justify the taking of this bird, and on Thursday, 

 October 30, I shot it. 



The skin is now at the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh, Pa. — Geo. L. 

 FoRDTCE, Youngstown, Ohio. 



American Merganser {Mergus americanus) at Boston, Mass. in 

 Midwinter.— On the Charles River, December 30, 1913, at 8.45 o'clock 

 A. M. there appeared to be a movement towards the west, that is up the 

 river, of American Mergansers. There was no wind, although the vane 

 pointed west. Some skim ice in the river. I first saw eight drakes, and 

 one female resting on the water near the edge of the ice, they soon took 

 wing and passed by me. At this time there were three females diving 

 near the stone wall, and two other females farther out. Then came a 

 flock of twenty-two or three, about half and half males and females, they 

 flew past me and were about thirty-five yards high, no notice was taken 

 by those flying, or those resting on the water of each other. I also saw a 

 few others resting on the water. During a period of fourteen years I have 

 never seen so many of these birds in one day in Charles River. Those 

 heretofore observed being in the spring where the ice breaks up, and the 

 average seen during those fourteen years would not be more than a dozen 

 or fifteen a year. On the afternoon of the above date at four and a quarter 

 o'clock p. M. I saw a lone Ruddy Duck (Erismatura jamaicensis) in brown 

 plumage. — George H. Mackay, Nantucket, Mass. 



Two Unrecorded Specimens of the European Widgeon from 

 Massachusetts. — ■ As the European Widgeon {Mareca penelope) has so 

 rarely been taken in Massachusetts I wish to record a specimen in my 

 collection taken at Ipswich, on October 25, 1909. The bird, an immature 

 male, was shot by a gunner and sent into the Boston markets where it was 

 recognized by Mr. John H. Hardy, Jr., through whose kindness it came 

 into my possession. 



Mr. A. C. Bent permits me to record another specimen, in similar plum- 

 age taken at Bridgewater on November 9, 1903, by Mr. J. E. Bassett and 

 now in his collection (No. 1886, Coll. A. C. Bent). This is the first record 

 of the occurrence of the species in Bristol County. — F. Seymour Hersey, 

 Taunton, Mass. 



