Vol. XXXIl 



1914 



] General Notes. 399 



burden over the brushv.-ood, but did not then in the brief and surprised view, 

 distinctly make out the object carried. A few minutes later a second 

 flight occurred close by, which I plainly observed and noted in its full 

 particulars. After a time I indistinctly remembered having seen years 

 before, an engraving of a like scene, which I later found in Chapman's 

 Farm Encyclopedia. The print is verj^ lifelike, except that the young 

 which I saw was relatively larger than here shown. — C. C. AIcDermid, 

 Bailie Creek, Mich. 



A Feeding Habit of the Ruddy Turnstone {Arenaria interpres 

 morinella) .— September 7, 1913, at Lincoln Park, Chicago, 111., I saw about 

 a dozen of these birds busily engaged in feeding about a large flat-topped 

 pile of fertihzer to be used on newly-made land. Most of them were dig- 

 ging in the pile near the edges, a few were perched on the top, while one 

 or two others were turning over sticks in the usual fashion on the barren 

 ground a few feet away. Those on top were alert and not feeding; the 

 others seemed much more obUvious to possible dangers. The feeding 

 birds reminded one very much of chickens, minus the scratching. When 

 they were scared away a few alighted on the beach, but the rest, after 

 circling, came back to the pile. They were unusually numerous compared 

 to the numbers seen in previous years. They were associated with numer- 

 ous small sandpipers, and two or three small plovers. The pile stood some 

 distance from the beach, so that the birds could not have reached it in 

 running about their usual habitat, and it seems reasonable that this new 

 habit was formed through imitation of the other shore birds, which are 

 not so much restricted to beaches. — Edwin D. Hull, Chicago, III. 



Willow Ptarmigan in Montana. — I recently mounted three Willow 

 Ptarmigan {Lagopus lagopus lagopus) received February 21, 1914, from Mr. 

 L. W. Hill of St. Paul, Minn., who secured them near Midvale, Montana, 

 in the New Glacier Park. As I have never before seen any ptarmigan 

 except the White-tailed species from this region, the occurrence seems 

 worthy of record. — Harry P. Stanford, Kalispdl, Mont. 



Choucalcyon versus Sauromarptis. — In my " Revision of the Classi- 

 fication of the Kingfishers " (Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., XXXI, 1912, p. 

 241), I stated that the name Choucalcyon Lesson, Traite D'Orn., 1831, 

 248, "type by subsequent designation (Gray, 1855), Alcedo gaudichaud 

 Quoy and Gaim." would have to replace Sauromarptis Cab. & Heine, 

 proposed on grounds of purism. 



Dr. Gregory Mathews has kindly called my attention to the fact that 

 Lesson himself in 1837 designated as the type of Choucalcyon the bird now 

 known as Dacelo gigas (Bodd.). In the Complement des ceuvres de Buffon, 

 Oiseaux, 1837, p. 355 (a work which was not available when my paper was 

 prepared) Lesson writes: " Le type de ce groupe est le grand alcyon de la 

 Nouvelle-Hollande, que Buffon croyoit provenir de la Nouvelle-Guinde, 

 et qu'il a figure enl. 663." As Buffon's plate represents Dacelo gigas. 



