114 THE NATURALIST OF THE ST. CROIX 



liberated near Calais, but good hunters and woodsmen 

 say they were never seen after the first or second season. 

 Some bred but none were ever seen afterward. The best 

 scientific authorities upon this point say : ' ' This quail 

 — the Messina — has several times been imported into 

 the United States, but has failed thus far to become 

 naturalized." 



In the Bulletin of the Nuttall Ornithological Club, 

 Volume VI., page 126, January, 1880, in a list of birds 

 of Eong Island by De E. Berier, Fort Hamilton, E. I., 

 occurs this note : ' ' Falco gyrf alco absoletus ; Eabrador 

 gyrfalcon. Mr. J. Wallace of New York informs me that 

 a fine specimen of this bird, killed in the fall, two or 

 three years ago, on the north shore of Eong Island in 

 Queens county, passed through his hands. It is now in 

 the collection of Mr. George A. Boardman." Without 

 doubt this is the falcon which Mr. Boardman saw a 

 hunter bring into the market in New York, when he was 

 on one of his visits to that city and referred to in a note 

 found among his papers. The note says Mr. Boardman 

 bought the bird, had John Wallace skin it and took it 

 to Washington with him. When in New York he gen- 

 erally went around to the markets to see what he could 

 find that was new and always took the rare or unusual 

 specimens to Washington for identification. One of 

 these was a strange duck which Mr. Boardman purchased 

 at a market in New York in 1871, which he had Mr. 

 Wallace skin. This was taken to Washington for identi- 

 fication and caused something of a puzzle to the Smith- 

 sonian experts, by whom it was at first thought to be a 

 cross but afterward proved to be the Crested Duck of 

 Europe, according to a letter from Prof. Baird dated at 





