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Genera/ Notes. [July 



The King Eider (Somateria specta'bilis) at Brunswick. Ga. — I have 

 been so fortunate as to secure two line specimens of the King Eider, both 

 of which I shot at the mouth of the Altamaha River. The first, a male, 

 was taken April 25, 1S90, and was alone. The other, also a male, was 

 shot from a flock of seven, four males and three females, on May 5. 

 All were rather tame and unsuspicious until shot at once, but I was un- 

 able to get near them again. The flesh of the two captured was found 

 to be tender and delicious, with no fishy taste. The stomachs contained 

 a few small shell-fish and some vegetable matter. — W. W. Worthington. 

 Skelter Island, N. T. 



The Snow Goose (C/teu kyperborea nivalis) on the Coast of Maine. — 

 About the middle of last April I received a Snow Goose in the flesh that 

 had been shot April 7 on Heron Island, at the mouth of the Kennebec 

 River, by Mr. E. A. Morse, of Phippsburg, Maine. The bird was a fe- 

 male in good condition but not fat. Mr. Morse writes me that it had 

 been seen about there for three days before it was shot. It never went 

 outside on the open ocean, but stayed on the marsh or in some pond. It 

 alighted one day with a flock of Wild Geese, but they appeared afraid of it, 

 and it did not stay with them. Except in this instance it was always 

 alone. It was very shy and wild, but would not leave the neighborhood. 



There are some half-dozen published records of the capture of Snow 

 Geese in New England, but unfortunately they are by no means explicit 

 as to whether the specimens were of this form or of the smaller Western 

 race, C. kyperborea proper. A point of interest is that they were all 

 taken in the autumn or early winter. — C. F. Batchelder, Cambridge, 

 Mass. 



Former Abundance of the Wild Pigeon in Central and Eastern New York 

 — During the early years of my boyhood Wild Pigeons abounded in great 

 numbers in central New York. One case in particular I well remember 

 in the spring of, I think, 1S35. The southeastern part of the township of 

 New Hartford, Oneida Co., N. Y., became for several days their feeding 

 grounds. This region abounded in beech forests, upon the nuts of which 

 trees they delighted to feed. For several days, beginning with the earlv 

 dawn and extending to near the middle of the forenoon, the flight of these 

 birds was almost incessant, and in the afternoon and evening their re- 

 turn was equally as phenomenal ; their roost was reported as being in trie 

 town of Norwich, Chenango Co., a distance of about fifty miles. The 

 flocks were so large and numerous that they appeared almost more like 

 clouds, and during the most active part of the time many flocks would be- 

 in sight from any one point of observation. Their flight was also very 

 low, probably owing to the close proximity of their feeding grounds, and 

 caused the noise from their passage over our heads to be very perceptible, 

 resembling the rushing sound of a heavy wind. Many of the smaller 

 flocks would fly so lew, that it induced the workmen from a neighboring 

 machine-shop to try to kill them by striking among them with long poles ; 

 this failed, however, for some time, as the flocks simply parted and al- 



