1^9' -I General Notes. 



117 



The M^ckingbird at Springfield, Massachusetts.— For the last three sea- 

 sons a pair of N[ockitiu;birds have located themselves at the same place in 

 West Sprin^Mield. This vear the male arrived from the South on the 

 twenty-second day of April, but the female was not seen until about the 

 first of June; they both departed early in August. — Robert O. Mokkis, 

 Spritigfield, Mass. 



Note on Copsychus adamsi — Correction. — In my list of birds from 

 Northeastern Borneo I described as new Cofsychus adamsi. This is 

 apparently the same as C. tiiffer Wardlaw Ramsay. Proc Zool. Soc. 

 1SS6, p. 123, from Elopura, Northeastern Borneo, the description of which 

 I somehow overlooked when searching that volume for new forms of Cop- 

 sychus. Mr. Ramsay's specimen seems somewhat larger than mine, and 

 his description is not quite as full as it might have been, but in all proba- 

 bility the birds are the same. 



The above correction was made before the copy of 'Nature' of October 

 30, containing some remarks on my paper by an anonymous correspon- 

 dent, was received. — D. G. Elliot, /l;w. Mus. Nat. Hist.. Nczv Voik City. 



Further Cape Cod Notes. — During August and September, 1S90, I 

 made the following interesting captures near Highlaml Light, North 

 Truro, Mass. 



Erismatura rubida. — On August it I found four young accompanied by 

 the female parent on a large shallow pond which lies between the towns 

 of Truro and Provincetown. At the approach of my boat the old bird left 

 her young and joined five other adults which were resting upon the water 

 half a mile away ; tiie young ones, however, were too voung to fly, and so 

 attempted to escape by swimming and diving to the shelter of a cat-tail 

 island near which they happened to be when surprised. Two of them 

 reached this place of safety, but the others were secured after a trouble- 

 some chase. They were very expert divers, remaining beneath the sur- 

 face for a considerable length of time, and on appearing again exposing 

 the upper part of the head only, and that for but a few seconds. As the 

 water just here happened to be filled with pond weed (yPotamogeton pecti- 

 natiis and P. ferfoliatus) it was not difficult to trace the motions of the 

 birds, wlien beneath the surface, by the commotion which they made in 

 passing through the thick masses of vegetation. The flock of old birds 

 contained at least two adult males, which were very conspicuous among 

 their dull-colored companions. They were all very shy, so that it was 

 impossible to approach to within less than one hundred yards of them. 

 The adults, as well as the two remaining young, were seen afterwards on 

 several visits to the pond. 



The two taken are males. The head and greater part of the body is 

 covered with down, but the remiges, rectrices, and scapulars are beginning 

 to appear, as are also the true feathers along the sides of the body. No. 



