336 General Notes. [October 
GENERAL NOTES. 
A New Duck for Massachusetts, Nomonyx dominicus. —A fine adult 
male specimen of Momonyx domintcus (Linn.) was shot ina small pond 
near Malden, Mass., on August 27, 1889. It was brought to Messrs. 
Goodale and Frazar (93 Sudbury St., Boston) to be stuffed, and it was by 
the kindness of Mr. Goodale that I had the pleasure of examining it in the 
flesh. The color of the upper mandible was light blue with a narrow 
middle stripe of black. The feet were gray. This is, I believe, the first 
record for this species in Massachusetts, and the third for North America. 
(See Baird, Cassin, and Lawrence, B. N. A., p. 925 (1860) ; Cabot, Proc. 
Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., VI, p. 375, XIV, p. 154; and American Nat., V, p. 
441.)—Cuas. B. Cory, Boston, Mass. 
Phalaropus lobatus and Phalaropus tricolor. —I saw four Phalaropus 
lobatus here June 18. Two killed were females with ova the size of No. 
12 shot. I believed them to be last year’s birds. 
I came upon three Pkalaropus tricolor at play the afternoon of May 16 
just as the sun shone for the first time after a two days’ cold storm of rain 
and snow. ‘They were in shallow still water, about a foot apart, forming a 
triangle, and each kept in nearly the same place while they spun about rap- 
idly like tops. They would often pause fora little while with bills pointing 
inward and then at the same moment resume their spin, each apparently 
doing its best to go the fastest. I watched them for ten minutes at less 
than twenty-five yards’ distance, and their light graceful bodies riding like 
corks the little waves of their own making was a pretty sight. I reluc- 
tantly killed them and found them to be an old female and male anda last 
year’s male.—P. M. THorn», Caft. 22d Inft., Fort Keogh, Montana. . 
Nesting Habits of the Parrakeet (Cozurus carolinensis). — While in 
Florida during February and March, 1889, I questioned everybody whom 
I met regarding the nesting of the Parrakeet. Only three persons pro- 
fessed any knowledge on this subject. The first two were both uneducated 
men—professional hunters of alligators and plume birds. Each of them 
claimed to have seen Parrakeets’ nests, which they described as flimsy 
structures built of twigs and placed on the branches of cypress trees. One 
of them said he found a nest only the previous summer (1888), while fish- 
ing. By means of his pole he tipped the nest over and secured two young 
birds which it contained. 
This account was so widely at variance with what has been previously 
recorded regarding the manner of nesting of this species that I considered 
it, at the time, as a mere fabrication, but afterwards it was unexpectedly 
and most strongly corroborated by Judge R. L. Long of Tallahassee. 
The latter gentleman, who, by the way, has a very good general knowl- 
edge of the birds of our Northern States, assured me that he had examined 
