186 General Notes. [*$ 



swam ashore, before seeking the slight shelter afforded by the spot which 

 came so near being its final resting place. These data are all attested by- 

 letters and other memoranda received by my assistant, Mr. Walter Deane, 

 in May and June, 1905, from Dr. Jones, who appears to have had most of 

 his information from Mr. Haines. There is a newspaper clipping, how- 

 ever, pasted in one of the letters and inscribed (evidently by Mr. Deane) 

 "Boston Post, 1905," which reads as follows: — "Pelican found at Sand- 

 wich. Sandwich, May 17. — A strange sight was witnessed here on 

 Friday, when a large pelican was found on the beach here by Mr. Kounze, 

 who gave it to Eugene Haines. It measured 8 feet from tip to tip of its 

 strong wings. Its bill was over 18 inches long, and the pouch underneath 

 would hold two or three gallons. Whether it followed some other birds 

 from its far-away home, or whether it was blown towards these shores in a 

 hurricane, none can tell. Mr. Haines will have it mounted and placed on 

 exhibition." 



This brief note is, as far as I am able to learn, the only published record 

 that has hitherto appeared of the bird to which it relates. It will be 

 observed that the name of the man who found the Pelican was here printed 

 "Kounze," not "Kuntz," as it is written by Dr. Jones; while it is necessary 

 to point out further that the "Friday" immediately preceding May 17, 

 1905, fell, according to the calendar for that year, on May 12, instead of on 

 the 13th, which Dr. Jones regards as the correct date. As he is careful to 

 express doubt in one of his letters concerning the accuracy of his spelling 

 of the name, that given by the Sandwich correspondent of the 'Post' is 

 perhaps to be preferred ; but with respect to the date, Dr. Jones is, without 

 question, the better authority of the two. He has just written me (Febru- 

 ary 23, 1909) : "I am sure you will make no mistake in accepting the data 

 which I obtained at the time, in accordance with the request of Mr. Deane, 

 for I certainly fixed the date then as accurately as possible. . . .and the 

 evidence I obtained was from Mr. Haines to whom the bird was given by 

 the finder." — William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



The European Widgeon in Rhode Island. — Almost any large collection of 

 birds is likely to yield occasional surprises in the way of rarities which have 

 been previously misidentifled or overlooked. An instance of this hap- 

 pened only a few weeks ago when I found in my series of American Widgeon 

 a peculiarly colored specimen, labeled Anas americana, which I do not 

 remember to have ever noticed before. My record books show that it was 

 purchased, with a number of other birds, in 1896, from Mr. Edward Sturte- 

 vant of Newport, Rhode Island, and that one of my assistants catalogued 

 and relabeled it with the others, possibly when I was absent from Cambridge. 

 Its original label, still attached to the skin, reads as follows: — " tf Dafila 

 acuta, 22, Rhode Island, Middletown 20 Sep. 1889. Taken by Edward 

 Sturtevant, Collection of Edward Sturtevant." My assistant wrote in the 

 Catalogue, between quotation marks: — "This is the only one I ever saw 

 in this locality (salt marshes between 2d and 3d Beaches). " I am unable to 



