General Notes. 101 



being white), and measured seventy-eight inches in expanse. It was shot 

 by a farmer three miles east of Peekskill, on the 16th of November, 1877. 

 A third specimen was taken in the Palisades of the Lower Hudson in 

 October, 1875. This was a fine adult specimen. The sportsman who shot 

 it said that " he saw it in a tree over his head, and killed it with a charge 

 of No. 9 shot." 



I have seen this Eagle on several occasions, but never in summer. In 

 March, 1876, two Golden Eagles were found in a certain spot in Put- 

 nam County for several weeks, but I did not succeed in shooting them. 

 In April, 1872, I saw one twice, whose tail was all white, save a narrow 

 terminal bar of black. 



An aged hunter, Mr. William LeForge, positively asserts that Eagles 

 nest upon the cliffs north of West Point. In support of this statement, he 

 related to me, in substance, the following circumstance : A few years ago, 

 (about ten ?) on the occasion of the death of an old man, who lived the 

 life of a hermit, near the summit of a mountain between " Cro's Nest " 

 and " Storm King," the remains had to be carried down to the foot of the 

 mountain to the river. On their way down the company (conducted by 

 LeForge) halted at the foot of a ledge, where their attention was attracted 

 to the " hissing " of some young Eagles on the rocks above them. — Edgar 

 A. Mearns, Highland Falls, N. Y. 



Meaning of the Word " Anhinga." — Correspondence of interest 

 respecting etymologies of ornithological names with W. C. Avery, of 

 Contentment, Ala., elicits the following derivation and meaning of the 

 strange-looking word " Anhinga," as applied to the Snake-birds (species of 

 Plotus). 



"Thinking it probably Spanish, I sought it in Leone's Dictionary, 

 where I found, not Anhinrja, hut Anhina, 'an aquatic bird of prey in 

 Brazil, called the Darter, PlotusJ Anhina is undoubtedly the Spanish or 

 Portuguese word ; but how has it been corrupted into Anhinga ? In a 

 French Encyclopaedia I find the following : ' Anhinga, nom bresilien de 



ces oiseaux La longueur demesuree de leur cou, jointe a sa minceur, 



leur donne una figure etrange .... on dirait des canards qui out pour cou 

 un long serpent.' Hence the name ' Snake-bird,' Portuguese Anhina, 

 from the Latin Anrjuina 1 (Anguis, a snake)." This derivation seems to be 

 undouljtedly correct, Anhinga being corrupted from Anhina. — Elliott 

 CouES, Washington, D. G. 



Late capture of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher in Massachu- 

 setts. — IVIr. W. B. Barrows informs me that on November 29, 1876, he 

 took a male Empidonax flaviventris, at Reading, Mass. The day was so 

 cold that ice was forming rapidly in the shade ; yet the bird had the 

 same motions which characterize it in June, and though it had an empty 

 stomach, was very fat and apparently in the best of spirits. It Avas, how- 

 ever, silent so far as was observed. I also learn from Mr. H. A. Purdie 



