202 General Notes. [April 



Length, 641; extent, 904; wing, 205; outer toe 84; middle toe, 79; 

 tarsus, 78; culmen, 67; head, 57; gape, 80; height of bill at base, 14.5. 



The widening of the river for about two miles by the Lawrence dam 

 affords a specially attractive halting place for numerous waterfowl. Only 

 a few days before this capture Mr. A. L. Bennett shot a specimen of 

 the Surf Scoter {^Oidemia perspicillaia Linn.) at the same place, which 

 thus had the honor of furnishing within one week two new birds for the 

 Kansas list. — F. H. Snow, La-ivrence, Mass. 



Puffinus borealis at Gardiner's Bay, N. Y. — Stragglers from the large 

 flight of Cory's Shearwaters, which occurred in September and October, 

 1SS6, oft" Gay Head,* Mass., seem to have reached Long Island, N. Y. I 

 recently obtained a specimen taken by Mr. W. W. Worthington, in Gar- 

 diner's Bay, Long Island. 



This is,T believe, the first recorded specimen from New York. — Arthur 

 P. Chadbourne, Cambridge, Mass. 



Eggs of the Ivory Gull {Gavia alba). — The National Museum at 

 Washington, D. C, has recently received a set of two eggs, of the rare 

 Ivory Gull {Gavia alba). A short desci-iption of these may be of interest 

 to the readers of 'The Auk.' These eggs were taken, with seventeen 

 others, at Storden (Great Island) on the northeast coast of Spitzbergen. 

 in 80" 9' north latitude, by Captain E. Johannsen, of Tromso, Norway, 

 who found a small colony of these birds breeding there, and secured a 

 number of the adult and young of this species, as well as the above men- 

 tioned number of eggs, o« ^«^«5^ (?, /.S'^^. All the eggs taken contained 

 large embryos, and were on the point of hatching. It is remarkable 

 that birds should nest so late, in such a climate and so near the pole. 



Previous to this find, but four eggs of this species were known to science. 

 According to Mr. Henry Seebohm, the distinguished English ornitholo- 

 gist, these are deposited as follows : One egg, obtained by Mc'Clintock, 

 in the Museum of the Royal Dublin Society; two eggs, obtained by 

 Malmgren, are in the Slockholm Museum, and a fourth is in the collection 

 of Mr. Benzon in Copenhagen. Mr. Seebohm describes the specimen in 

 the Dublin Museum as measuring 2.45 inches in length and 1.70 inch 

 in breadth. Ground color bufiish olive, and the surface markings, which 

 are distributed over the entire shell, as dark and pale brown, and the 

 underlying markings, which are very large and conspicuous, as violet 

 gray. See 'History of British Birds,' by Henry Seebohm, Vol. Ill, pp. 



337-339- 



The two eggs in the National Museum Collection measure 3.36 X 1.76 

 and 2.26 X 1.67 inches respectively. Their ground color is huffish olive; 

 in one eg^, somewhat paler, perhaps more of an olive drab tint. The 

 surface markings, more or less irregularly distributed over the entire egg, 

 vary from clove-brown to bistre. The underlying or shell-markings vary 



* Baird, Auk. Vol. IV, 1887, p. 71. 



