General Notes. 187 



retained as birds that have occurred here ? " Dr. Brewer, on page 91, same 

 vohime, replies by saying " these names should remain on the list of those 

 requiring more evidence." Mr. Purdie answers, on page 13, Vol. II, 

 with proofs, among others the following, quoted from Mr. Allen : " Dr. 

 Wood informs me that Wilson's Plover is abundant in August on Long 

 Island." In Vol. IV, page 242, the writer records having shot a single speci- 

 men (female) on Long Island in May, 1879. A few facts regarding this 

 occurrence may be of interest as proof of the rarity of this bird even there. 

 This specimen was secured while spending a few days at " Lane's " on 

 Shinnecock Bay. His son George, who has been on the bay for nearly 

 fifteen years, was in the blind with the writer the morning it was pro- 

 cured. The instant George saw it, he requested the writer to secure it, 

 as he liad never seen such a bird, and wished to examine it. After looking 

 at it closely he was positive he had never seen one on the bay before. 

 It was shown to an older son of Lane's, and to Lane himself, both of whom 

 have been baymen from youth (the latter about forty years), and neither 

 had ever seen a bird of this species before. They are unusually intelligent 

 and observing gunners, and know every bird that is a common or even 

 rare migrant or summer resident. On its being submitted to IVIi-. J. G. 

 Bell, he identified it as " jEgialltis wilsonia, in summer plumage." It 

 seems to the writer that the testimony offered is almost conclusive, as it is 

 unbiased ; the Lanes not knowing of the difference of opinion referred to 

 above, nor in fact did the writer until a few weeks since, when he procured 

 a complete set of the Bulletin. — William Dutcher, Neio Yo)-l: City. 



Number of Eggs of Ardea herodias. — A letter from M. K. 

 Barnum, of Syracuse, N. Y., states : " I have lately collected a large 

 number of eggs of the Great Blue Hei'on, and nearly every nest examined 

 contained five, instead of the ' two or three ' given by you as the number 

 (Birds N. W., p. 519). In one case there were six. When less than four 

 were found in a nest, they were invariably fresh ; whence I infer that in 

 such instances the birds had not finished laying. Audubon, I believe, also 

 gives the number as only three : if his observations were correct, the birds 

 laying in this vicinity offer an exception to the rule." — Elliott Coues, 

 Washington, D. C. 



The Llttle Brown Crane (Grus fratercidus, Cassin). — It had not 

 occurred to me, until Mr. Allen's note in the last number of the Bulletin 

 called my attention to the matter, that this species still rested solely upon 

 the original description in " Birds of North America," so far as general 

 knowledge of it was concerned, else I might sooner have announced the 

 fact that the National Museum had received numerous specimens of it, 

 chiefly from Arctic America, where it is abundant, and where it seems to 

 entirely replace G. canadensis. Indeed, it is probable that all far-northern 

 citations of the latter refer to fraterculus. Many specimens have been 

 received from various parts of Alaska, — from Kadiak (Bischoff), from 

 St. Michael's (Messrs. Dall and Bannister, Turner, and Nelson), — as 



