60 BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 



Geese that I have killed in a short time, have paid for all the 

 powther and shott, I have spent in a yeare, and I have fed my doggs 

 with as fatt Geese there, as I have ever fed upon my selfe in Eng- 

 land. 



" Ducks, there are of three kinds, pide Ducks, gray Ducks, and 

 black Ducks in greate abundance : the most about my habitation 

 were black Ducks : and it was a noted Custome at my howse, to 

 have every mans Duck upon a trencher, and then you will thinke 



a man was not hardly used Teales, there are of two sorts 



greene winged, and blew winged I had plenty in the rivers 



and ponds about my howse. Widggens there are, and abundance 



of other water foule Sanderlings are a dainty bird, more 



full bodied than a Snipe, and I was much delighted to feede on 

 them, because they were fatt, and easie to come by, because I went 

 but a stepp or to for them : and I have killed betweene foure and 

 five dozen at a shoot which would loade me home."* Josselyn 

 says of " Sanderlins," he has known " twelve score and above kill'd 

 at two shots." The contrast in respect to the abundance of water- 

 fowl in those early times and now is too apparent to require com- 

 ment. 



The White Pelican (Pelecanus trachyrhynchus) is mentioned as a 

 former inhabitant of New Hampshire and other parts of New Eng- 

 land, and was doubtless in early times more or less common in 

 Massachusetts, where its presence is now regarded as merely acci- 

 dental ; but two or three recent instances of it here are on record. 



ON THE NUMBER OF PRIMARIES IN OSCINES. 



BY DR. ELLIOTT COUES, U. S. A. 



The number of primaries among oscine birds, whether " nine " or 

 " ten," has been rightly considered an important item in classifica- 

 tion, ranking in value with the modifications of the tarsal envelope. 

 Oscine families, and even groups of families, are conveniently dis- 

 tinguished by this character, and as naturally as by the " booting," 

 or scutellation, of the tarsus. In certain families, however, the 



* New English Canaan, pp. 67 - 69. 



