126 General Notes. 



descriptions of plumage and careful measurements furnished by Mr. Green- 

 wood are conclusive of the identity of his bird, while I have Dr. Brewer's 

 high authority for stating that the other is certainly C. americanus. — VV. 

 Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



Occurrence of Eoss's Goose (Anser rossii) on the Pacific Coast 

 AND Inland. — Until very recently the Ross's Goose, Chen, or Horned 

 Wavy, as it was called by Hearne, has been considered a very rare spe- 

 cies, and the six or seven specimens in the Smithsonian Collection, with 

 perhaps one or two others in this country, presumably represented all the 

 specimens known. In 1876 Captain Bendire chronicled it as a visitant of 

 the interior lakes and rivers of Oregon in winter, and secured possession 

 of a single individual. 



While in San Francisco last November I learned from various sources 

 that a number of specimens of this Goose had been obtained from season 

 to season from the markets, nearly all in October. Recently, as I learn 

 from Mr. Ridgway, Mr. C. A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., has sent the Smith- 

 sonian two specimens with information that establishes the fact that, at 

 some seasons at least, the Ross's Goose is by no means a very uncom- 

 mon bird along the coast, and even in the interior lakes and rivers. A 

 single collector has procured for him seven individuals about Sacramento, 

 and, as he states, might have sent in, at least, twenty more ; but, as they 

 were in the immature plumage, he believed them to be valueless. The 

 same person states to Mr. Allen that for the past ten years he is certain 

 he has seen half a dozen or so each season, but that this year the bird has 

 been more numerous than ever. Mr. Bekling has also sent a specimen to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, with notes indicating the occurrence of this 

 Goose in the tule beds near Stockton. Mr. Allen is of the ojiinion that the 

 unprecedented cold weather of the past winter has had an influence in the 

 unusual abundance of these Geese, and thinks that they have been driven 

 from their more usual winter quarters somewhat to the north. It is i3rob- 

 ably safe to say that this Goose is a regular fall migrant in the latitude of 

 San Francisco, and doubtless erelong specimens will have so multiplied 

 as to be generally represented in cabinets. — H. W. Hensuaw, Washing- 

 ton, D. C. 



Note on Bucephala islandica. — Dr. J. Bernard Gilpin has pub- 

 lished* an interesting article on the specific distinctions of this species 

 from B. clangula. Besides the well-known outward marks of differences 

 especially observable in the head, he finds important anatomical charac- 

 ters in the structure of the trachea, bronchi, and lower larynx. According 

 to the plate, the difference is very strongly marked. In the words of the 



* Pages 390 - 403, with a plate, in some periodical not named in the over- 

 sliects which have reached me. Doubtless the publication of the Nova Scotia 

 Institute. 



