120 General Notes. 



follows closely in their wake. When the catch has been a large one, and 

 the work of cleaning the fish is continued at the anchorage, they remain 

 about the spot for hours picking up this offal directly under the sides of 

 the vessels. Here again the poor birds are often mercilessly slaughtered 

 by city gunners who shoot them for sport or practice, leaving the dead 

 and wounded to float out to sea with the ebbing tide. The fishermen 

 admit that their numbers have greatlj' diminished of late years, but they 

 are said to be still very abundant through the winter months. — William 

 Brewster, Cavibridge. Mass. 



Sterna forsteri breeding off the Eastern Shore of Virginia. 

 — An impression seems to prevail among ornithologists that Forster's 

 Tern breeds only in the interior of North America. At least I cannot 

 learn that Dr. Coues' comparatively recent ruling* to that effect has 

 been publicly corrected, or that it is generally known that the bird nests 

 on the Atlantic Coast. f On this account it may be worth while to 

 state that during a visit to Cobb's Island, Va., in July, 1880, 1 found Forster's 

 Terns breeding in moderate numbers on all the neighboring islands. 

 They nested apart from the other Terns, but often in company with 

 Laughing Gulls, on the salt marshes or on marshy islets, where their 

 eggs were almost invariably laid on tide-rows of drift-weed that fringed 

 the muddy shores. The largest colony seen in any one place comprised 

 perhaps twenty-five pairs, but it was more usual to find from six to a 

 dozen mingled with a countless number of Gulls. I was late for the eggs, 

 but secured a few far advanced in incubation, besides several downy young 

 and many adult birds in full nuptial dress. ^ — William Brewster, Cavi- 

 bridge, Mass. 



Note on the Foot of Acciimter fuscus. — On the plantar surfaces 

 of each foot of the Sharp-shinned Hawk two papillae may be noticed, 

 which differ from the others, more properly described as pads, in their 

 greater length and more symmetrical form. These pads are placed at 

 the second phalangeal joint of the third toe, and at the third phalangeal 

 joint of the fourth toe, that is, at the bases of the penultimate phalanges 

 of the third and fourth toes. These papillae are shown to be modified 

 pads, the same as those at the other two joints, by the less developed 

 papillae of Circus, Asiur, and others. This transition can readily be 

 traced in the sketches of the feet given in the systematic works on Hawks, 

 though the special prominence of the papillae in the Sharp-shinned Hawk 

 does not seem to be particularly noted. On removing the skin, however, 

 a marked difference at once comes in view. While all the pads are nearly 

 obliterated, the papillae still remain as solid cones of connective tissue (.''), 

 having much the same shape and sizes as the entire papillae. These cones 



* Birds of the Northwest, 1874, pp. 679, 680. 



t Mr. Sennett and Dr. Merrill found it breeding on the Lower Rio Grande in Texas. 

 (Sennett, B. Rio Grande, 1878, pp. 65, 66; Merrill, Ornith. Southern Texas, 1878, p. 172.) 



