106 General Notes. [j^ 



White Pelican at Savannah, Georgia. — I am glad to report the cap- 

 ture of a White Pelican (Pelecanus erylhrorhynchos), that was shot at the 

 wharves in the Savannah River, the date of capture was October 9, 1912, 

 the specimen is now in the hands of a taxidermist and is the property of 

 Mr. Cord Asendorf, Jr. — G. R. Rossignol, Jr., Savannah, Ga. 



The Black Duck Controversy Again. — During the last two years, 

 1911 and 1912, I have been much interested in a pair of wild Black Ducks, 

 apparently adult birds, that nested near a shallow pond back in the woods 

 at my place, Newton Centre, Mass. In 1911 they raised a brood of ten 

 young flappers, and while in 1912 they again nested there, I am unable to 

 say what became of the young, as 1 was forced to let the water out of the 

 pond before the time of their hatching. The old birds from their habits 

 were very apparently the same pair that returned each spring, and they 

 were of the so-called green-legged kind. 



While at Monomoy Island. Mass., during the last two weeks of October, 

 1912, with a couple of friends, we shol a number of Black Duck of the red- 

 legged kind (there were no green legs), among which were several that were 

 apparently young birds; and on October 25 there fell to one of our guns 

 a female, which from its size, plumage, and general characteristics, was so 

 evidently young that there could be no possible doubt about it. I person- 

 ally skinned and sexed this specimen, which showed its immaturity in all 

 those ways familiar to those who handle 1 birds, it must have been one of a 

 very late brood, for its upper mandible was a steel gray, and had not yet 

 begun to show those shades of light olive green of the adult bird, and the 

 ' nail ' at the end of the upper mandible was hardly darker than the rest 

 of the bill, and nothing like the dark and glossy black of the adult bird. 

 The lower mandible was pinkish and still quite soft and pliable, as in the 

 case of very young ducks, and the bird had red legs. 



Let us hope that this is the final nail in the coffin of the Black Duck 

 controversy, and that it may hold so securely that even Dr. Dwight may 

 not again resurrect the corpse in some post-mortem or prc-cherubic plum- 

 age. — F. H. Kennard, Boston, Mass. 



The Harlequin Duck in Wyoming. — On September 15, 1912, while 

 stopping at Moran post office near the north end of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, 

 I noticed two Hat skins of the Harlequin Duck (Htstrioniciis histrionicus) 

 hung in the dining room of Teton Lodge. The proprietor of the Lodge, 

 Mr. B. D. Sheffield, informed me that these birds had been shot in the 

 vicinity, on Jackson Lake, in May about four years ago, probably in 190S. 

 Both specimens were males in full plumage. 



This species is not included in Knight's ' Birds of Wyoming,' but Prof. 

 \Y. W. Cooke has kindly called my attention to a record in Coues' ' Birds 

 of the Northwest,' p. 579, of a pair of these ducks collected by Prof. F. V. 

 llayden, May 31, 18G0, on ' Mount. Stream.' The female contained an egg 

 nearly ready to be laid. Examination of the records qf other specimens in 



