HYPOTHETICAL LIST 387 



GROUND DOVE (Chsemepelia passerina terrestris) 

 Dr. George Bird Grinnell has recorded that when a small 

 boy he shot a " small pigeon" out of a flock in a tall tulip tree 

 in October, 1862 on the upper end of Manhattan Island. The 

 bird was shown to Mr. John Woodhouse Audubon, who pro- 

 nounced it a Ground Dove. This is the only evidence of the 

 capture of this southern species in New York State. The cir- 

 cumstances cannot be regarded as entirely satisfactory. The 

 date is unlikely, and Ground Doves do not occur in tall trees. 

 On the other hand Dr. Chapman has already suggested the 

 possibility of escaped cage-birds, which would account at 

 least for the abnormal date. In my opinion it would be better 

 to regard the occurrence of the Ground Dove in New York 

 State as hypothetical. 



WHITE GYRFALCON (Falco islandus) 



An arctic species, whose occurrence in our area is purely 

 hypothetical. Mr. A. H. Helme, the veteran field naturalist, 

 has reported a bird seen at Miller Place, Long Island, which he 

 feels sure must have been this species. 



BURROWING OWL (Speotyto cunicularia hypogsea) 

 A species of the Great Plains, which has been reported in 

 this vicinity on one occasion. A bird flew into an uptown 

 house in New York City, August 8, 1875 and was caught 

 alive. This record is so remarkable, that one instantly sus- 

 pects an escaped cage-bird. In my opinion it is entirely 

 unsatisfactory, and Dr. Chapman was entirely correct in 

 omitting it from his List. This species has no real claim to a 

 place among the birds of New York State. 



AMERICAN THREE-TOED WOODPECKER (Picoides americanus) 



On February 5, 1918, which will be remembered as the 

 severest winter on record, Mr. Charles Johnston, an active 

 and careful observer, saw a male of this species in the woods 

 near West Englewood, Bergen County, New Jersey. It was 



