2o6 General Notes. \_A^^\ 



The Canvas-back Duck in Massachusetts. — Four specimens of this 

 species (^Ayihya vallisneria), two of each sex, were shot in Silver Lake, 

 Pembroke, Plymouth County, Dec. iS, 1S96, from the stand of Mr. Thomas 

 Arnold of North Abington. I have seen a pair of them that he has had 

 mounted. There were five in the flock. Mr. Arnold authorizes me to 

 report this capture. 



A single Canvas-back, a male, was seen by Mr. J. E. Bassett in Nippe- 

 nickett Pond, Bridgewater, Nov. 26, 1896, accompaning two Dusky Ducks 

 {Anas obscnra). The three swam almost within gunshot of the stand, 

 allowing a protracted scrutiny of them through a field glass, and another 

 later in the day. Mr. B. has shot hundreds of Red-heads, and at once saw 

 that this was a different bird, and described to me all the characteristics of 

 A. vallisneria with perfect accuracy. These, with other reported occur- 

 rences, indicate a phenomenal flight of the species in Massachusetts in the 

 late fall of 1896. — Herbert K. Job, North Middleboro\ Mass. 



Type Locality of Fuligula collaris. — It has sometimes happened in 

 the annals of ornithology that a species has been discovered or first 

 described from a locality remote from its subsequently ascertained normal 

 range — I do not mean by mistake, such as that which originated Picns 

 cafer ioY a Mexican bird, supposed to be South African, but from actual 

 capture of an individual far from its proper habitat. We have a striking 

 case of this happening to Barrow's Golden-eye, properly a North American 

 bird, of only casual occurrence in the locality whence its name islandica is 

 derived. In fact, the original appearance of this bird in print is as the 

 Clangiila of Brisson, Orn., 1760, VI, p. 416, pi. 37, fig. 2, where it is incon- 

 testably described and figured, along with a copious synonymy of the 

 Common Golden-eye or Garrot, which Brisson thought he had in hand, 

 though his bird was actually a Barrow's Golden-eye, in the Rdaumur 

 Cabinet. This is clear from the description of the w-hite ej-e-spot, which 

 Brisson says is "versus syncij>ut in acumen producta" — runs up to the 

 forehead in a point, and his plate shows the point plainly. Another case, 

 which it is the object of this note to explain, is the original naming and 

 describing of the Ring-necked Duck from a British-killed individual, far 

 from its normal range, in one part of which, however, the bird had before 

 been actually discovered. As is well-known. Anas collaris of Donovan 

 was first named and published in 1809 (Brit. B. VI, pi. 147), upon a spec 

 imen taken in England (found fresh in Leadenhall Market, if my memory 

 serves me righth'). But before that date, near the mouth of the Columbia 

 River, this species was discovered by Lewis and Clark. It is described 

 with unusual particularity by them, in the orig. ed. of Biddle's History 

 of the Expedition, Vol. II, 1814, p. 195; but the description as then 

 rendered was so mangled by the ostensible editor, Paul Allen, that it 

 became almost unrecognizable, and it was not until I examined the 

 explorers' original MSS. that what they meant was made clear: see my ed. 

 of 1S93, p. SSS. The bird was killed by one of their men at Deer Island 



