424 GeiH'rul Notes. | October 



Cuvier Totajins spccitliferus (Regn. An. ed. 2, i, p. 531 ; Pucheran, Rev. 

 et Mag. de Zool, 1S51, p. 369), and should therefore be termed Symf hernia 

 speculifera.'" On referring to Cuvier I find that this author gave only a 

 very brief description of the specimen which served as the basis of his 

 Totanusspeculiferns, although he says it stands higher on the legs and has 

 a longer bill than Z". 5ew;<^«/«/rt^«/5. Pucheran, however, in 1851, in his 

 important paper 'Etudes sur les types peu connus du Musee de Paris,' 

 described with great detail Cuvier's type, which description shows it to be 

 beyond doubt a winter example of Mr. Brewster's subspecies inornata. 

 He especially says it is to be distinguished from '^Totanus semipalmatus 

 Tern." by the length of the bill, while his measurements of the specimen 

 nearly equal the maximum for iuortiata, as given by Mr. Brewster. 



It may be noted that none of the American citations of Cuvier and 

 Pucheran, as given above, prove to be correct, indicating that these refer- 

 ences have been generally given without verification. 



The Totanus crassirostrisWQxW. (1816), as Mr. Brewster claims, is un- 

 identifiable, though pointing to spectiliferu, the bill being given as 2.50 

 inches long. The larger Western Willet should therefore stand as Sym- 

 f hernia semifahnata sfeculifera (Cuv.). — J. A. Allen, Am. Mus. Nat 

 Hist., Ne-w York City. 



A Second Maine (and Fourth New England) Specimen of Swain- 

 son's Hawk (^Biiteo s-Mai>/so!ii). — Through the kind offices of Mr. 

 Manly Hardy I have just secured a Swainson's Hawk, which was killed 

 about eight miles from Bangor in the town of Glenburn, Maine, May 19, 

 1SS8. Like the Gouldsboro (Maine) specimen which I obtained last year,* 

 it is of the melanistic type, but not entirely black. It was sent in the 

 flesh to Mr. S. L. Crosby of Bangor, and was examined by Mr. Hardy 

 before the skin was removed. — William Brewster, Cambridge. Mass. 



Nesting of the Black Swift. — On June 6, 1SS8, I collected a set of five 

 eggs of the Black Swift {Cypseloides niger). As far as I am aware, this 

 is the first set of this species collected. The nest was in the cornice of a 

 small wooden building on Yesler's Wharf of this city. The cornice was of 

 the kind usually known as store cornice, the interior being divided into 

 compartments by the rough brackets to which the planceer, facure, and 

 deck were nailed. At one end of the cornice the deck or top was sprung 

 up so as to leave an opening into the first compartment, in which the nest 

 was made. The compartment was about twenty inches square. 



The nest was composed of leaves, which were yet green, bits of paper, 

 chips from a planing-mill near by, a few horsehairs, and straw, and was 

 surrounded by a large quantity of loose straw. The leaves and paper 

 formed the lining of the nest. 



The eggs were white and were fresh, the birds having been sitting only 

 two or three days. As will be seen, they are very uniform in size: they 

 measure i.oo X .71, i.oo X .70, 1.02 X .70, .96 X .68, .96 X .68 inch. 



*Auk, IV, 1887, p. 160. 



