98 General Notes. 



maries, which measure 1.16 inches in length, the wing measuring 3.15 

 inches. Through the kindness of Mr. J. A. Allen, I have examined the 

 Vireos of this species in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology, and find in a series of about seventy specimens four more cases of 

 the same variation. They are as follows : No. 23,281 (Coll. M. C. Z., from 

 Coalburg, "W. Va.) with spurious primaries on Loth wings measuring 1.17 

 inches (wing, 3.23) ; No. 23,274 (Coll. M. C. Z., same locality), with a 

 spurious primary only on the left wing, measuring 1.10 inches (wing, 2.92) ; 

 No. 4285 (Coll. M. C. Z., from Newtonville, Mass.), with spurious primaries 

 on both wings, measuring 1.09 inches (wing, 3.02) ; and No. 4793 (Coll. M. C. 

 Z., same locality) with a spurious primary on the left wing, measuring 1.15 

 inches, the wing measuring 3.21. It may be well to say that they are not 

 the first primary coverts, but are true spurious primaries, lying in the same 

 plane as the other primaries, and difl^ering from the spurious primaries of 

 other species of this family only in being somewhat smaller. This varia- 

 tion seems particularly interesting from the fact that the presence or ab- 

 sence of a spurious primary has been to some extent taken as a basis of 

 classification in this family. — Charles F. Batchelder, Cambridge, Mass. 



The European Widgeon (Mareca ijenelope) in the United States. — 

 I take great pleasure in noting the capture on the Atlantic coast of the 

 United States of two specimens of Mareca penelo])e, which I am assured 

 have not been recorded. 



One is in the collection of Mr. Geo. N. Lawrence, who has kindly given 

 me the facts concerning its capture, as far as known ; the other in my 

 own. The first, which is a fine adult male, Mr. Lawrence said he pro- 

 cured from a gunner who captured it on the coast of Virginia, in 1855. 

 My specimen, an immature male, I procured in Fulton Market, N. Y., 

 January 6, 1873, and as far as I could ascertain, it came from Southamp- 

 ton, L. L — N. T. Lawrence, New York. 



The Sharp-tailed Finch (Ammodramus caudacutus) in Maine. — 

 Dr. Brewer strangely misquotes me on page 48 of the present volume of 

 the " Bulletin," in reference to the Sharp-tailed Finch {Ammodramus cau- 

 dacutus). In my note to which he refers, no mention is made of the cap- 

 ture of a "single" specimen in Scarboro', Me., nor indeed of tlie caj^ture 

 of any specimen at all. What I did say (see Bulletin, Vol. II, p. 27) 

 was that I had found the species a rare inhabitant of a part of Scarboro' 

 Marsh. 



Late in October, 1876, I observed a few individuals of this species on 

 Pine Point, — a sandy strip of land which forms the seaward extremity of 

 the great Scarboro' Marshes. Aside from the fact that this Avas consider- 

 ably to the east of their previously known range, I was surprised to find 

 them here, for I had carefully examined the Point and its vicinity, at 

 other seasons of the year, without detecting a single sjsecimen. Accord- 



