^^^io^P^] General Notes. 247 



Sharp-shinned Hawk in Maine in Winter. — On January 6, 1914, a 

 bird was brought to me for identification. It had flown into one of the 

 storehouses on the post on January 3 and died January 5. It proved to 

 be a very large male Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter velox). 



This is the fifth record of the occurrence of this bird in Maine during 

 the winter months. — Lieutenant G. Ralph Meyer, U. S. A., Ft. Mc- 

 Kinley, Me. 



Extreme Emaciation in a Specimen of the Snowy Owl (Nyctea 

 nyctea). — On the first of January, 1914, I received from Mr. Edward S. 

 Schmid, of Washington, D. C, a fine specimen of this owl. The bird had 

 died about an hour before it came into my hands. It had been captured 

 in northern Virginia while sitting on a low bush in the woods, the captor 

 simply walking up to it and slipping a bag over the bird as it sat there, 

 apparently in a dazed condition. 



When I first picked the specimen up it seemed to me to weigh but little 

 more than a handful of feathers, so light was it. After removing the 

 entire skin, from base of beak to claws, a most remarkable looking specimen 

 was presented to my view. The bird had been shot with coarse (No. 4) 

 shot, apparently a long time before its death, but the pellets were only 

 in the superficial muscles of the back and pinion; whether they had de- 

 prived it of flight or not I cannot say. However, it was very clear that 

 this owl had not eaten anything for a great length of time. All the evi- 

 dences of extreme emaciation were present, and to a degree never before 

 witnessed by me in any bird. The stomach was entirely empty, and all 

 the organs and viscera of the thoracic cavity and abdomen were reduced 

 almost to a state of atrophy. There was no adipose anywhere, but the 

 most remarkable sight was the muscles. These were all flabby and of a 

 very pale flesh-color; and the entire system was reduced almost to its 

 tendons and fasciae. As to the large pectoral muscles, they were so thin 

 that the sternum and ribs could be seen through them, and I am very sure 

 they were useless for the purpose of flight. 



Sir Richard Owen, in describing the nervous system in birds, makes no 

 mention of the coracoid bones in owls being pierced, antero-posteriorly, 

 by a foramen near the middle of their shafts for the passage of a nerve. 

 This I long ago pointed out to be the case in Speotylo (Bull. U. S. Geol. 

 and Geogr. Surv. of the Terr., 1883, p. 107), and in regard to the character 

 in this genus I stated: "This foramen transmits a branch of that cervical' 

 nerve coming from between the twelfth and thirteenth cervical vertebrae."' 



Now in this extremely emaciated Snowy Owl the nerves and vessel* 

 could all be traced and studied with remarkable ease and celerity. In it^ 

 the aforesaid nerve, passing, as usual, through the coracoid bone, is the 

 most anterior one of the brachial plexus, with which it is incorporated in 

 the common sheath, making no anastomotic connections with the other 

 branches. — R. W. Shufeldt, Washington, D. C. 



