^°1'8?7^^] General Notes. 2 1 5 



has only 10, and in Callipepla proper, which has 14. Lophortyx has 12, 

 like all the rest of the genera, excepting the two just named, and in my 

 judgment should never have been united with Callipepla by the A. O. U. 

 I propose that we restore it to full generic rank, on the ground of the 

 difference from Callipepla in the number of rectrices, together with the 

 remarkable peculiarity of the crest, and also the decided difference in the 

 plumage of opposite sexes, as compared with the great similarity between 

 the sexes of Callipepla. LopJiortyx seems to me to be, in fact, one of the 

 best characterized genera of Odontophoi-inse ; and Callipepla is unique in 

 this subfamily in the number of its rectrices. — Elliott Coues, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



Notes on the Mexican Ground Dove. — Desiring to do what I can 

 to free the A. O. U. Check-List of even the slightest blemishes, I may 

 correct two errors which appear under Columbigallitia passeritia pall- 

 escens, No. 320rt, where " C 374, ^«;-^" and " C ^^"1, parf'' appears. The 

 facts are otherwise. I believe I am the only author who has persisted in 

 recognizing this subspecies ever since it was described by Baird in 1859; 

 it is ignored in the A. O. U. List of 1886, and first given a place in the 

 List of 1895. But it has stood unchallenged in the ' Kej- ' since 1S72 ; it is 

 " C 374« " of my first Check-List, 1873, and " C 548 " of m^' second Check- 

 List, 1882, with the same separate number in all the eds. of the ' Key ' 

 since 1SS4. 



No doubt many ornithologists share my regret, that ChamcBpelia must 

 give way, under our rules, to such a monstrous name as Columbigalltna ; 

 but the peculiar atrocity of Columbigallina may not yet have dawned upon 

 all of them. It is traceable back to the " Colombi-Galline " of the 

 mendacious Levaillent, Oiseauxd'Afrique, VI, 1808, p. 98, pi. 278, the same 

 being a fictitious bird of Africa, made up of the skin of a tame pigeon 

 with artificial wattles: see Sund., Kon. Svensk. Vet.-Ak. Handl., 1857, p. 

 55, and Tent., 1873, p. 98; also, Salvad., Cat. B. Brit. Mus., XXI, 1893, p. 

 647. This miserable artefact became promptly the Columba carnnculata 

 of M. Temminck and Mme. Knip, and in due term spawned three bastard 

 genera: Verrulia Yleming, 1822; C reogenys Gloger, 1842; and Alectryo- 

 pelia Van der Hoeven, 1855. Such is the pity that our innocent little 

 Ground-doves should expiate the original sin by bearing the stigma of 

 such a name ; and more 's the pity that it is saddled on the patient ass of 

 ornithological nomenclature. — Elliott Coues, Washing-ton, D. C 



Another Golden Eagle in Connecticut. — An adult male Golden Eagle 

 (Aquila chrysaetos), weighing eight pounds and a half, alar extent seven 

 feet five inches, now in my possession, was taken Jan. 19, at Salem, twelve 

 miles west of this place towards the Connecticut River. It was trapped 

 while feeding on the carcasses of sheep killed by dogs. Its tracks were 

 seen the day before, and foot-prints similar to these were seen last winter 



