190 General Notes. 



Thk Eggs of the Curlew Sandpiper {Trinrja suharqunfa). — The 

 eggs of this species have hitherto escaped the researches of European 

 ornithologists, and up to the present moment have continued to be an 

 especial object of search, and an occasion of renewed disappointment. In 

 a recent visit to Washington, I saw, among the interesting things brought 

 back by Mr. Lndovic Kimilien from the Howgate Arctic expedition, two 

 eggs of this very rare species, which he was enabled to procure, through the 

 attentions of (xovernor Fencker, in the neighborhood of Chri-tianshaab in 

 North Greenland. One egg measures 1.52 inches in length by 1.05 

 in breadth. Its ground color is drab, with a distinct shade of olive, 

 and it is thickly marked with blotches of two shades of undjcr-brown, one 

 quite light, the other much darker. These are most numerous on and 

 around the larger end, and are in a somewhat longitudinal direction, with 

 a tendency also to a spiral course. There are also a few spots, of a very 

 dark color, almost a black, on the larger end. The other egg measures 

 1.47 X 1.04 inches, and is much more pyriform in shape. Its ground color 

 is a very light greenish drab, with rather sparse markings of a deep umber. 

 These are larger and more confluent about the greater end of the egg, 

 ■where they are chiefly disposed in a circular ring. The rest of the egg is 

 sparsely marked with the same. About tlie larger end are also a few vei-y 

 dark markings. — T. M. Bkevvek, Boston, Mass. 



Capture ok the European Widgeon in North Carolina. — On 

 the 1 7th of last December, a gentleman called my attention to a European 

 Widgeon hanging up with a bunch of Ducks, in an express office in New 

 York. The expressman, of course, had no right to part with the bird, 

 and as the address was wrong, I was unable to follow up the Ducks. The 

 man promised my companion to send him the true a<ldress as soon as he 

 received it, but nothing further was heard from him. The bird was a 

 male in full plumage, and, as I have since learned, came from Currituck. 

 Another of these AVidgeons was killeil at Cunituck, on January 17, 1879, 

 by William Baylis, Esq., of Brooklyn, in whose possession it now is. 

 Through the courtesy of Mr. Baylis I was j)ermitted to examine this bird, 

 which is a fine adult male. 



The first occurrence of j\lareca penelope in this country was in 1842, 

 when Mr. G. N. Lawrence obtained one in Fulton Market, said to have 

 come from Long Island. In this Bulletin, Vol. Ill, p. 98, two specimens 

 are recorded; one irom Virginia, taken in 1855, the other from Long 

 Island, in 1873. 



In all, five authenticated individuals of M. penelope. have now been re- 

 corded from the Atlantic coast. Mr. Charles W. iSIoxon, of Point Pleas- 

 ant, N. J., informs me that during the past season several reil-Iieaded 

 Widgeons have been shot on Barnegat Bay. — De L. Berier, Fort Hamil- 

 ton, L. I. 



Bon.\paute's Gull in Kans.\s. — I have in my collection of birds 



