2 14 General Notes. [ ApHl 



On Sept. 3, at night, some Plovers were heard as they passed over the 

 town. On Sept. 9 a sevei"e storm prevailed, wind east-northeast with 

 heavy rain. On the loth it was still storming with wind southeast, also 

 raining very hard during the first half of the day, but clearing about 

 noon. No birds were noted, nor did an}- land, so far as I know. On 

 Sept. 13 and 14 still another very severe storm prevailed at sea. On the 

 morning of the i6th I visited a number of the principal game stalls in 

 Faneuil Hall market, Boston, Mass. In all of them were six Golden 

 Plovers, one of which was a young bird. 



No Eskimo Curlews have been received in the market from this coast 

 this season, as far as I can learn, nor have I seen or know of one being 

 authentically noted this season. 



A number of young blue-legged Jack Curlew (^N. hiidsoniciis) landed 

 in Massachusetts during this storm, and a number were taken. I saw 

 about thirty in the market and about a dozen were shot in Nantucket. 

 During the storm high easterly gales prevailed along the southei^n New 

 England coast on the 13th, the maximum wind velocity being 52 miles 

 at Block Island, 33 miles at Boston, and 26 miles at Nantucket. This 

 storm came from the sea, giving no previous warning. No Plovers or 

 Eskimo Curlews could have been passing at the time, as otherwise they 

 would have been forced to seek land for shelter from the elements. 



Personally I have taken but four Golden Plovers this season, two of 

 which were 3'oung birds. In addition to these perhaps one dozen more 

 may have been shot on Nantucket and Tuckernuck Islands. On the 

 north shore of Massachusetts, at Ipswich, one of the principal sportsmen 

 there informed me he had seen and taken only one Golden Plover. There 

 was no landing of Plover or Eskimo Curlews in that vicinity this season. 

 He thought he saw four Eskimo Curlews very high up in the air flying 

 on migration. 



Some of the large game dealers in Boston, Mass., received as ustial the 

 past spring and summer, considerable numbers of these birds which had 

 been taken in the Mississippi Valley while on their northern migration 

 to their breeding grounds. Among them were large numbers of the 

 Bartramian Sandpipers, which bird is already scarce as a resident on the 

 New England coast. Are we not approaching the beginning of the end.' 

 — George H. Mackay, Nantucket, Mass. 



Validity of the Genus Lophortyx. — It is Avell-known that in the Gallinse 

 the number of tail-feathers is a good clue to the genera. Excepting when 

 very numerous — 20 to 32 — they are quite constant in the genera usually 

 recognized, such a case as that of Coturnix, in which the rectrices are 

 10 or 12, being quite unusual. Our Grouse, for example, are well marked 

 in this respect, though some have as man}' as 20 rectrices, and are not free 

 from some individual variation in the numbers. In the Odontophorinse, 

 a compact group of Perdicidse, peculiar to America, the rectrices are 

 invariably 12, except in the recently separated genus Rhynchortyx, which 



