388 General Notes. [july 



The second bird was recorded by Mr. Everett P. Wheeler in ' Bird Lore ', 

 1909, p. 174, as follows, " November 15, 1908, I found on the Canadian 

 shore of Lake Erie, about seven miles from Buffalo, the body of a Dovekie 

 (Alle alle). The skin was identified by Mr. Savage and Dr. Cummings of 

 the Buffalo Academy of Science and is still in my possession. The specimen 

 was a male, entirely free from subcutaneous fat, and the crop was empty." 

 Wishing to know what had become of this bird I wrote to Mr. James 

 Savage of Buffalo who very kindly put me in communication with Mr. 

 Wheeler and in September 1910, the latter presented me with what re- 

 mained of the specimen explaining that it had been almost completely 

 destroyed by moths. Fortunately the wings are perfect enough to be 

 measured, there are a few feathers on the head, and the beak and feet are 

 uninjured, and the bird can be identified with certainty. There is one 

 other record of the Ancient Murrelet in the region of the Great Lakes, one 

 taken at Lake Ivoshkonong, Wisconsin, late in October, 1882, and recorded 

 by George B. Dennett (Auk, 1884, p. 98). Of the many accidental 

 migrants to the Great Lakes hardly another species has so restricted or 

 remote a range. The Ancient Murrelet is confined in summer to the North 

 Pacific; breeding in the Aleutians most to the Commander Islands and 

 Kamschatka thence south to the Kurile Islands, apparently not entering 

 Bering Sea proper. In winter it ranges south to Japan, and more rarely 

 from Alaska along the British Columbian coast, and south to California. 

 In view of the restricted range it is difficult to account for the presence of 

 the Murrelets on the Great Lakes, if the birds are young as they likely are, 

 Mr. A. C. Bent's suggestion that they were stragglers to the Arctic Ocean 

 and becoming lost were carried through the Northwest Passage with the 

 ice that moves eastward with the prevailing current, is not improbable. 

 Against this is the fact as Mr. Bent points out, that the Arctic ice has 

 always proved an effective barrier to prevent the eastward wanderings of 

 Bering Sea forms, none of the Auklets or Murrelets having even near 

 relatives on the east coast of Arctic America. Once into Hudson's Bay it is 

 not difficult for a sea bird to reach the Great Lakes. — J. H. Fleming, 

 Toronto, Ont. 



Franklin's Gull in Wisconsin. — On April 23, 1911, the wings, tail, 

 and numerous feathers of a Franklin's Gull (Larus franklini Sw. & Rich.) 

 evidently recently killed were found on the shore of Lake Mendota, near 

 Madison, Wisconsin. The bird was identified at Wasliington from a wing, 

 and this wing is preserved in the collection of the University of Wisconsin. 

 This gull is very uncommon so far east at any season, and especially so in 

 spring. This seems to be the first spring record of it from this vicinity 

 since 1870. — F. L. Conover, Madison, Wisconsin. 



Sabine's Gull on the Mississippi River. — I have two skins of Xema 

 sabini from the collection of the late C. K. Worthen with the data in his 

 handwriting, both young birds as follows: 20032 Coll. of J. H. F. " Male 



