VOl i907 1V ] General Notes. 211 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Black Tern at Philadelphia, Pa.— On October 20, 1906, return- 

 ing from an unsuccessful ducking trip behind Petty's Island, in the Dela- 

 ware River, opposite Philadelphia, we (my brother and myself) observed 

 a Black Tern (Hydrochelidon nigra surinamensis) which was flushed from 

 the water about two hundred yards off Williams Street wharf, by a passing 

 tug. It flew slowly up the river, keeping close to the shore, but beyond 

 gunshot. It was plainly visible to us; as we were not over a hundred 

 yards distance from it when it took wing, and the black color and white 

 under tail coverts precluded any possibility of doubt as to its identity. 



The Black Tern is given in Stone's ' Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania 

 and New Jersey,' (p. 32) as a "rare or irregular transient" in this vicinity, 

 and in the same book (p. 48) he says, "stragglers have been reported 

 from the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers," but I can find no records 

 of its occurrence on the former river. Regarding this species in New 

 Jersey, Mr. Stone says (p. 48 of his book), "transient, occurring during 

 the fall migration on the New Jersey coast"; and from this remark I 

 infer that the bird seen by us was one of these transients, driven inland 

 by the stormy weather and northeast winds that prevailed for about a 

 week previous to our observation. Its presence here cannot be attributed 

 to any other cause, which is undoubtedly the true reason of its occurrence. 



The Greater Yellow legs (Totanus melanoleucus) occurs here only after 

 northeast storms, which also occasionally drive inland other rare species 

 of water birds from the New Jersey coast. The Common Terns (Sterna 

 hirundo) are sometimes abundant on the Delaware River above Philadel- 

 phia during northeast storms and always disappear after their abatement. 



Mr. Stone is correct in considering the Black Tern a "rare or irregular 

 transient" in this vicinity, for it is of such extremely rare occurrence that 

 there is no record of its capture during recent years on the Delaware. — 

 Richard F. Miller, Philadelphia Pa. 



Ross's Snow Goose in Colorado. — On December 23, 1906, there was 

 shot on the Kennicott Club Lake, 3J miles east of Longmont, Colo., a 

 male Ross's Snow Goose (Chen rossii). The bird was killed by Capt. 

 Eli, U. S. A., presented by him to Mr. Mart H. Watrous, mounted by 

 Mr. Rudolph Borcherdt, and later generously presented by Mr. Watrous 

 to the Colorado Museum of Natural History, Denver, where it may now 

 be seen on exhibition. It was associating with a flock of Mallards (Anas 

 boschas), with which it had also been seen by the lake keeper the day 

 before. Two or three days previous to this time the keeper's wife had 

 seen a "flock of white geese about the same size as this one," but whether 

 they were Ross's Geese or not can only be conjectured. I have examined 

 the bird very carefully, comparing it with a specimen from my own col- 



