V< *i9OT IV ] General Notes. 223 



by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Stone says (on this page) that it is "only a rare 

 straggler in the Delaware Valley," and on page 32 he considers it as a 

 "rare or irregular transient" in the vicinity of Philadelphia, which indeed 

 it is. 



The only other record of its occurrence in the Delaware Valley which 

 I have been able to find is the observation of one by three different persons 

 at Media, Delaware County, Pa., in 1905. This bird, presumably the 

 same individual, was seen on May 1 by Philip H. Moore, on May 2 by 

 Lydia G. Allen, and on May 7 by Alice Fussel. (See 'Cassinia' for 1906, 

 p. 67). 



The Blue-gray Gnatcatcher may have been a summer resident in the 

 Delaware Valley in former years, "as there is a very young bird in the 

 collection of the Academy of Natural Sciences, obtained many years ago 

 by Wm. Wood" (Stone's Birds of Eastern Penn., and N. J., p. 148, foot- 

 note), but it must now be considered as an extremely rare transient in 

 this vicinity. — Richard F. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Two Interesting Nebraska Records. — Amale specimen of the Iceland 

 Gull (Larus leucopterus) in the first winter plumage was shot by a boy 

 near Dorchester, Nebraska, January 15, 1907, and later was brought to 

 the University for identification. The bird was among a flock of crows 

 when first seen, and was taken for a "white crow." It was easily shot 

 because of its remarkable tameness. This record not only adds a new 

 bird to the Nebraska list, but, I believe, extends the known winter range 

 of the species considerably to the southward, the usual limit in the interior 

 being considered the Great Lake region. The dimensions of this speci- 

 men, taken in inches, are: expanse, 47.5; length, 24.5; wing, 16.25; 

 tail, 6.25; chord of culmen, 1.80. 



The second record is ^hat of an unusually early appearance of the 

 Bohemian Waxwing (Ampelis garrulus) within the State. This bird 

 does not usually reach the latitude of Nebraska until the middle of Novem- 

 ber, but on October 27, 1906, three specimens were shot from out a flock 

 at the forest reserve near Halsey, Nebraska, and two of these were sent 

 to the University for naming. — Myron H. Swenk, University of Nebraska, 

 Lincoln, Neb. 



Autumn Records of Golden Plover and Lapland Longspur in Wayne 

 Co., Michigan. — In the summer of 1906 I was engaged to engineer the 

 laying out of a cemetery on P. C. 40, Springwells Township. As the 

 work was to be according to strictly modern ideas, all the surface dirt 

 was handled, and by autumn the twenty acres was a long narrow piece 

 of smooth barren ground, different from any other piece in that vicinity. 

 This attracted a pair of Golden Plover (Charadrius dominicus) October 

 13, and a flock of fifteen Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus) 

 November 7. The plover were inspected at 200 feet and the longspurs 

 at less than half that distance through the powerful transit telescope. 



