1889.] | . General. Notes. 67 
at Monomoy sland, near Chatham, Massachusetts, and now in my col- 
tion. It would seem, therefore, either that Forster’s Tern has ceased to 
visit the New England coast at all regularly or frequently, or that its 
occurrence in small numbers during several successive seasons prior to 
1879, was purely fortuitous. The former is perhaps the more probable 
hypothesis, for nearly all our water birds have decreased in numbers dur- 
ing the past decade, and none among them more considerably than the 
Terns—the chosen victims of the millinery collectors.—WILLIAM BREw- 
STER, Cambridge, Mass. 
Notes on Brewster’s and the Blue-footed Gannet. — Early in October, 
1888, Mr. E. J. Reed of Guaymas, Mexico, did me the very great kindness 
of capturing alive, and presenting me with aspecimen each of the above- 
named birds (Sula brewsteriand S. goss¢). They were taken at San Pedro 
Martir Isle of the Gulf of California, and expressed to Fort Wingate, 
New Mexico, where they arrived on the 16th of the month, the Blue- 
footed one having died on the passage, while Brewster's was as lively as if 
he had just been taken. 
In comparing them with Colonel Goss’s admirable description of these 
two new species, published in ‘The Auk’ for July, 1888, I found them to 
correspond very closely. Points of the most interest were the dark 
brown irides in S. drewster¢, with their limiting circle of white, the 
strongly pectinated mid-anterior claws, and the beautiful shade of pur- 
plish ultra-marine blue of the feet of S. goss?. 
After its fast of certainly four or five days I expected to see the surviv- 
ing Gannet drink a quantity of water, and perhaps eat anything that was 
offered to it; but, no, upon being placed in a large bath tub of fresh 
water, it started to vigorously splash and preen itself, as a duck will do 
under similar circumstances, and then suddenly ceased without appar- 
ently drinking a drop, disgusted I imagine at its being fresh. I had to 
force it to eat a few ounces of venison, not having a fish at hand to give 
it; indeed, I myself have not seen a fresh fish for over four years. The 
bird was placed next out in the sun, where it seemed to enjoy itself, and 
arranged with its beak its wetted and rumpled plumage. If one at- 
tempted to handle it, however, it struck out vigorously with its sharp- 
pointed bill, and could inflict quite an ugly wound, as one of my hands 
will still testify. Next morning my Garnet was more cheerful than ever, 
but circumstances induced me to kill it with chloroform, and I removed 
the skins from both specimens and forwarded them to Mr. Robert Ridgway 
for identification. Upon dissection they proved to be females, and a 
casual examination of the viscera in each satisfied me that Macgillivray’s 
account of this part of their anatomy, as given in Aububon, is a fairly 
accurate one for Suda, though I saw enough besides to satisfy me that a 
far more thorough description of the structure of these birds is 
demanded.—R. W. SuHuFrEeLptT, Fort Wingate, New Mexico. 
'-Histrionicus histrionicus on Long Island, New York.—I wish to record 
the capture of a specimen of Histrionicus histrionicus taken on Long 
