VOl iS VI ] General Notes. 315 



of ornithology of the Museum. Mr. Cherrie says: "This specimen was 

 collected by the donor at Seaford, Long Island, September, 1908" (Museum 

 News, Vol. IV, March, p. 85, 1909). I learn from Mr. Peavey that it was 

 taken on the bay side of the beach, back of the sand dunes, where the 

 "sedge" grass grew in tufts. In one of these the bird was concealed, and 

 was only flushed on a near approach, so that care had to be exercised 

 in collecting it so that it should not be rendered unfit for preserving as a 

 specimen. It was taken Sept. 20, 1908, and is a male. 



A second specimen, also a male, was taken by him at the same place on 

 December 4, 1908. This one was found on the edge of the main creek, in 

 the short salt-meadow grass. A third specimen was obtained on January 

 10, 1909, at the same place, in a similar location. This specimen, through 

 the generosity of Mr. Peavey, is now in the writer's collection of skins. 



Cathartes aura. Turkey Vulture. A very fine male specimen of this 

 vulture has been added to my collection through the generosity of Mr. Roy 

 Latham of Orient Point. Mr. Latham briefly stated the facts of its occur- 

 rence in his record of the species of birds observed by him at Orient Point 

 on Dec. 22, 1907, which was published in the 'Bird-Lore' Christmas bird- 

 census (Vol. X, 1908, p. 29). Mr. Latham informed me that the bird was 

 unable to fly when first discovered by him on the beach. It was at once 

 evident that it was disabled, and it was found that it had some foreign 

 substance in its throat. This had, no doubt, prevented it from eating 

 for so long a time that it had become too weak to fly. The cause of the 

 obstruction in the throat was found to be a bone of an animal of consider- 

 able size. Mr. Latham extracted the bone and removed the bird to his 

 home, where it was cared for and protected. He fed the bird, and found 

 that it ate greedily of stale fish. Despite his care, however, it did not sur- 

 vive the following night. 



Catharista urubu. Black Vulture. — I am indebted to Mr. C. W. 

 Crandall of Woodside for the report of the capture of a specimen of this 

 bird which so rarely reaches us from more southern regions that this may 

 perhaps be regarded as the first specimen authenticated beyond a doubt, or, 

 at least, backed by an authenticated skin, taken within the actual geo- 

 graphical limits of Long Island. As stated in 'A List of the Birds of Long 

 Island,' p. 67, the evidence entitling it to a place in the avifauna of Long 

 Island rests on the authority of Mr. Robert Lawrence who observed it on 

 the adjacent shore of Sandy Hook, and of Mr. deL. Berier, who reported 

 one found dead at Coney Island beach, by Mr. Akhurst. As no authenti- 

 cated skin of this specimen is extant, that of Mr. Crandall's is all the more 

 valuable. Mr. Crandall was at Plum Island, L. I., on May 19 and 20, 1895, 

 and on exactly or nearly the same dates on the three subsequent years, in 

 the interests of ornithological investigation. It was on the second trip, 

 namely, 1896, on the 19th or 20th of May, or within a day or two of these 

 dates, that the bird was shot. He was in the field, bird-nesting, when, 

 hearing a distant gun-shot he was attracted to investigate the cause. He 

 found that the shot had been fired by a farmer, at a large bird which had 



