General Notes. 59 



species whicli differs notably in plumage from any example hitherto 

 described, the following description may prove acceptable. In this con- 

 nection, we would respectfully call attention to the fact that a record of 

 the specimens of this obscure, yet most " excellent " species, contained in 

 private collections in this country, is very desirable. We have several 

 located, but no doubt there are some extant of which we have no knowl- 

 edge. The specimen upon which Audubon based his well-known original 

 description and figure of the species is now in the British Museum ; two 

 specimens only (including the one described below) are in the collection 

 of the United States National Museum ; there is one in the Museum of the 

 Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and one (a very fine adult male) in 

 the Museum of the University of Kansas. These (with the exception of 

 Audubon's type and the Ragsdale specimen) are all described in detail 

 in Hist. N. Am. B., Vol. Ill, pp. 293, 294. Should any one have in his 

 possession an example unquestionably of this species, which diff'ers notably 

 from any of those described, we should be very glad to be made aware of 

 the fact. 



Buteo Jiarlani (Aud.) : Adult female, No. 79084 (U. S. Nat. Mus.), 

 Gainesville, Texas, March 3, 1879, G. H. Ragsdale. — Prevailing color 

 of the upper parts blackish brown, relieved by streaks of pure white on 

 the head and neck (where the whole concealed portion of the feathers 

 is snow-white), the wings mottled or clouded with lighter brown ; prima- 

 ries marked, anterior to their emarginations, with broad bars of dusky 

 black and brownish slate, the terminal portion being uniform brownish 

 black. Upper tail-coverts irregularly spotted, chiefly toward edges, with 

 clear ochraceous. Tail ivliite, sparsely mottled, chiefly towards ends and 

 along edges of the feathers, with hoary brown and dusky, with scarcely 

 any admixture of ochraceous ; crossed near the end by a tolei'ably well 

 defined subterminal band of brownish black. Chin, throat, jugulum, and 

 whole breast, pure white, marked with sharply defined tear-shaped longi- 

 tudinal spots of brownish black ; rest of lower parts brownish black, more 

 or less barred and spotted with pure white beneath the surface. " Eye 

 brown ; cere and gape green ; legs pale yellow." "Length, 22^ "; wing, 

 15.75; tail, 10.00; culmen, 1.05; tarsus, 3.20; middle toe, 1.70.— R. Ridg- 

 WAY, Washington, D. C. 



Note on Limosa h.emastica. — The Hudsonian Godwit being still a 

 bird none too well known, I have pleasure in presenting some notes re- 

 specting its habits, and the dissimilarity of the sexes, received from G. S. 

 Ageesberg, of Vermilion, Dakota, who also sends me specimens of a very 

 dark female and of a light-colored male. Regarding the habits of the 

 bird, my correspondent states that they are very similar to those of Macro- 

 rhamphus griseus ; and any one who will examine the latter genus closely 

 will see how very near Limosa it is in form and proportions. He found 

 these Godwits abundant about Vermilion, where they were very unsus- 



