General Notes. 63 



within a few yards, dive readily, and appear again a long distance from 

 where they dove. They are evidently not used to the lurking dangers of 

 the gun, and have probably found their way up the St. Lawrence, up Lake 

 Ontario, and across to Lake Erie. There have been to my knowledge at 

 least eighteen of them shot. They are generally found in small flocks of 

 three or four birds." The specimen sent arrived in good condition, and 

 Mr. Linden has my thanks for the kind attention. — J. A. Allen, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



Capture of Phaethon flavirostris in Western New York. — 

 One of the rarest and most interesting of the occurrences of sea-birds, of 

 which we now and then hear, has been brought to my notice, the case 

 being that of a Tropic Bird in Orleans Co., New York. A letter received 

 from Mr. David Bruce, dated Brockport, N. Y., November 18, 1879, gives 

 the particulars : — 



" I enclose a rough sketch of a bird picked up exhausted in a field, after 

 a severe southeast storm, at Knowlesville, Orleans Co., about twenty miles 

 fi-om here. It was given alive to the Kev. J. H. Langille of that village, 

 who killed and preserved it. It is a Tropic Bird, in immature plumage. 

 I think the occurrence of this oceanic bird so far inland will interest you." 



I am also in reception of a letter from Mr. Langille on the same sub- 

 ject. Mr. Bruce's colored sketch, of life-size, shows the species to be 

 Phaethon flavirostris of Brandt. It is a bird of the year, undoubtedly, as 

 the central tail-feathers are not filamentous, and only project a couple of 

 inches. Both the gentleinen mentioned have my thanks for their kind 

 attentions in acquainting me with a case so interesting. — Elliott Coues, 

 Washington., D. C. 



The Marsh and Sooty Terns in Maine, and other Birds 

 rare to the State. — I am indebted to Mi-. George A. Boardman for 

 the record of a specimen of Sterna anglica which was shot at Grand Menan 

 in the latter part of August, 1879, by one of his collectors. The only pre- 

 vious New England record* was a specimen taken at Ipswich, Mass., in 

 September, 1871. 



At the time Mr. Boardman's Tern was shot, three specimens of Ilydro- 

 chelidon nigra were sent to him from the same locality, which Tern seems 

 to be of unusual occurrence on the Maine coast. The first coast record 

 was given by Mr. N. C. Brown in this Bulletin (Vol. IV, p. 108). At 

 about the same date of the above captures a Black Vulture was shot on 

 Campobello Island, near Eastport, and a Great White Egret at Grand 

 Menan. It was at this time that the Black Skimmers were taken near 

 Eastport, and recorded in the Bulletin (Vol. IV, p. 242). The occurrence 

 of all these Southern species so far from their usual range must be attrib- 



* Am. Nat., May, 1872, p. 306. 



