9° 



General Notes. ["January 



I could hear of no others outside of that immediate locality. This is, I 

 believe, the most northerly record for the species. — E. C. Thurber, 

 Alhambra. Cal. 



The Key West Quail-Dove (Geotrygon martinica) at Key West. — It is 

 of interest to note the capture of an adult male of this species by Mr. J. 

 W. Atkins at Key West on September 15, 1SS9. This is the only occa- 

 sion, in some three years of careful field work, on which the species has 

 been encountered by Mr. Atkins, and I append his notes on the subject. 



"1 went to the woods at daylight (September 15) to learn if Swainson's 

 Warbler had arrived, and plunging into the lowest and thickest of the 

 wood to look for that species I finally discovered one Swainson's War- 

 bler, a verv wild and shy bird. In the pursuit of the bird in question, 

 while wending my way carefully and slowly through the thick under- 

 brush, the Dove (Geotrygon martinica) was discovered on the ground 

 about eight paces ahead of me. I secured it with dust shot from my 40 

 calibre gun. I saw but the one Swainson's Warbler and did not secure 

 it." 



Mr. Atkins has kindly sent me the bird, No. 3269 of my register. It is 

 an adult male that has just completed the moult, and is in very tine 

 unworn plumage. — W. E. D. Scott. Tarpon Springs, Fla. 



Buteo brachyurus and B. fuliginosus. — The evidence presented by Mr. 

 Scott in the July (1SS9) number of 'The Auk' (pp. 243—245), apparently 

 removes all doubt as to these two very dissimilar birds being simply 

 phases of one species, a view of their relationship which has for main 

 years been held by leading European ornithologists, but which I could 

 not share, for reasons fully explained by me on pages 209, 210 of Bulletin 

 N. O. C for October, 1SS1. Mr. Scott's suggestion, however, that "the 

 bird known as />. brachyurus is the female, and that called B. fuliginosus 

 the male" is certainly incorrect in that it implies that such is alivcys the 

 case; for I have examined males and females of both forms (see the article 

 quoted above). I would add that as each phase is also represented by 

 very young birds, the variation would appear to be a purely individual one, 

 as in the cases of the two phases of the Screech Owl (Megascops asid) and 

 of several other species of Buteo—th& difference from the latter being that 

 in the case of B. brachyurus the large majority of specimens are either 

 typically one phase or the other, while in other Buteones examples of vari- 

 ous intermediate character are decidedly the more numerous instead of 

 exceptional. — Robert Ridgway, Washington, D. C. 



New York City Owls. — Strix pratincola. American Bark Owl. — On 

 April 13, 1S7S, Mr. [oseph Wilde brought a fresh specimen to Mr. Edward 

 Conway, taxidermist, of 55 Carmine St., New York City, stating that it 

 was killed ••just outside the City." 



Nyctala acadica. Saw-WHET Owl. — While walking on the upper part 

 of Manhattan Island, above High Bridge, on the Harlem River, March 13, 



