Vol. XIV-1 Getieral Notes. 207 



1897 J 



in the Columbia, a little below the mouth of the Willamette, March 28, 

 1806; and the description in full is found in Codex Clark 0^81-83, 

 Codex Lewis K 10. This is unmistakable. The bird is smaller than the 

 duckinmallard {A?ias boscas); head and neck purplish-black; belly and 

 breast white; flanks of a pale dove-color with fine black specks; beak re- 

 markably wide; ..." a narrow stripe of white garnishes the base of the 

 upper chop ; this is succeeded by a pale sky-blue color, occupying about 

 an inch, which again is succeeded by a transverse stripe of white, and the 

 extremity is a fine black, " etc. This is obviously diagnostic of Fuligula 

 collarts, even though no mention is made of the orange-brown collar, 

 which was either overlooked, or not developed in the specimen handled. 

 I have of course set forth the case in my work as cited, but this note will 

 serve to throw it into the current of ornithological literature, to which 

 the celebrated History does not distinctively pertain. No question of 

 nomenclature is raised; the matter is simply historical. — Elliott 

 CouES, Washington, D. C. 



Dafilula, a New Subgenus. — Type ^iierquediila eatoiii Sharpe, Ibis, 

 1875, p. 328, Kerguelen Island. —Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 



The Lesser Snow Goose in New England. — I have lately added to my 

 collection three New England specimens of the Lesser Snow Goose 

 (Chen hyperborea'); one taken at Toddy Lake, Maine, October 4, 1893, by 

 Mr. Alvah G. Dorr of Bucksport, Maine, another at Lake Umbagog, Maine, 

 October 2, 1896, by Mr. Charles Douglass, the third at Ipswich, Mass- 

 achusetts, October 26, 1896, by a local sportsman who sent the bird in the 

 flesh to Mr. M. Abbott Frazar of Boston. The specimen first named was 

 not sexed ; the othef two birds were males. All three are young in fresh 

 autumnal plumage and all are prefectly typical examples of hyperborea 

 which, evidently, is of much commoner occurrence in New England than 

 the large form ?iivalis. 



The Umbagog specimen was accompanied by a young Blue Goose 

 {Chen ccerulescens) which was also killed, both birds coming into my 

 possession less than an hour after their death. —William Brewster, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



Branta bernicla glaucogastra. — While I was in London in 18S4 I 

 examined with Mr. Seebohm his collection of Brant Geese, and was 

 favorably impressed with his view that there are three recognizable forms, 

 two of which occur in North America, though neither of these is the 

 ordinary Brant of Europe. We have the two extremes of the White- 

 bellied and Black-bellied, between which typical B. bernicla is interme- 

 diate. It is probably because we have only compared these extremes that 

 we have found B. nigricans so decidedly different from what we call B. 

 bernicla. The stock is one of the most thoroughly circumpolar of all 

 birds, perhaps more decidedly hyperborean than any other excepting 



