1889.] General Notes. 71 
1.05 X .go inches, and is in my collection with the parent bird. It will be 
observed that in size it is very close to the egg of WZ. whitneyz.—Gnro. B. 
SENNETT, Vew York City. 
[A New Generic Name for the Elf Owl. |—MMicrofallas, Strigidarum 
genus novum = Mrcrathene, Coues, 1866, nec Micrathena, Sundevall, 
Arachn.—E.L.iotr Cours, Washington, D. C. 
Sphyrapicus ruber Breeding in Coniferous Trees.—In the July number of 
‘The Auk’ (Vol. V, No. 3, p. 234) I stated that I doubted very much that 
this species ever bred in coniferous trees of any kind. Ina letter recently 
received from Mr. A. H. Anthony, a well-known western ornithologist, he 
informs me that S. ruber was a rather common species in Washington 
County, Oregon, during 1884 and 1885, and that he found a pair nesting 
in a big fir stub, fully fifty feet from the ground. He writes me that as 
he was unable to take the eggs he did not molest the birds, but that there 
could be no doubt of their identity, as he watched them from the first 
day’s excavating till they began to incubate.—C. E. BenpirE, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 
Occurrence of Traill’s Flycatcher near Washington, D. C.—Three 
specimens of Empidonax pusillus trazlliz taken this spring, are probably the 
first ever obtained from this locality. Although this Flycatcher is men- 
tioned in every list of the birds of the District of Columbia and vicinity 
as occurring here, there is no evidence that the authors had ever seen the 
bird or taken aspecimen. One was taken by the writer on May 13, 1888, 
at Potomac Run, Alexandria County, Virginia, another by Mr. Ridgway 
at Laurel, Maryland, on May 18, and the third by myself on the 1gth, in 
Virginia, opposite Georgetown, D. C. Several others were subsequently 
seen and identified.— WILLIAM PALMER, Washington, D. C. 
Early Appearance of Empidonax minimus at Portland, Maine.—The 
spring of the year 1888 was a bad season for early arrivals at Portland, 
most of the earlier birds being very much delayed. Yet some did come 
early, and I think the most remarkable example was the Least Flycatcher 
(Empidonax minimus). Previously its earliest recorded arrival was 
May 5 (N. C. Brown, Proc. Port. Soc. Nat. Hist., 1882, p. 12), but on 
the morning of May 2, 1888, a chilly day with the thermometer only 36° 
Fahrenheit, and snow falling steadily, I saw one in a large orchard inside 
the city limits.—JoHN C. Brown, Portland, Maine. 
Second Occurrence of the Prairie Horned Lark in Eastern Massachu- 
setts. —In recording* not long since the capture of three specimens 
of Otocoris alpestris praticola at Revere Beach, Massachusetts, I ventured 
*Auk, Vol V, No.1, Jan., 1888, pp- III, 112. 
