196 



General Notes. [April 



mollusk opened its shell and released the imprisoned foot. Mr. Barry 

 afterwards learned from bojs of the neighborhood that the same Duck had 

 been noticed flving about on several mornings and evening-s previous to the 

 day upon which he shot it. The clam was probably clinging to the Duck's 

 foot at that time, and had not released its grip even when the Duck lit 

 upon the water, as it must frequently have done in the intervals of time 

 between observation. — ^J. Walter Fewkes, Cambridge., Mass- 



The Lesser Glaucous-winged Gull in New York. — On January 28, 1884, 

 Mr. Edward Root, of Green Island, N. Y., brought to me a Gull, fresh in 

 the flesh, and said he shot it the day before as it sat on the ice by a rift of 

 open water in the Mohawk River, near its junction with the Hudson — at 

 about latitude 43° 46'. The weather had been very cold for about a 

 month. The bird was thin in flesh, weighed only 21 ounces, and had 

 in its stomach mei-ely a few grains of gravel. 



When I received the bird the color of its irides was pale grayisli brown ; 

 of its bill, light watery yellow, with a greenish shade near the base, and 

 a small red spot in a little cloud of duskj' on each side of the lower man- 

 dible above the angle. The legs and feet wer^ flesh color. 



Its measurements were : Length, 23.00 inches ; extent, 51.75 ; wing, 15. 

 75; bill, 1.60; from nostril, .80; from gape, 2.60; height at nostril, .60; at 

 angle, .63; tarsus, 2.20; middle toe and claw, 2.25; tail, 7.00; wings be- 

 yond tail, 1.50; diameter of iris. .36. 



The bird was a female, and its ovary showed that it had passed through 

 at least one breeding season, and was not very old. In size, plumage, 

 coloration, and wing-markings it seemed similar to the Gulls recently 

 described by Mr. William Brewster (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, Vol. VIII, 

 pp. 216-219) ; and upon submitting the inounted bird to him for examina- 

 tion he informed me that it is what he has named Lams kumlieiii. — ^ Aus- 

 tin F. Park, Troy, N. T. 



[The specimen above referred to is most nearly like Mr. Welch's, 

 among the four which I have previously seen. The blue of the mantle is 

 similarly deep, and the slate-gray of the primaries perhaps even more 

 extended, the first three feathers having their outer webs almost wholly 

 dark, except terminally, where the characteristic white apical spots, 

 although present, are unusually restricted. In these respects the bird 

 extends the series of known specimens (five in number) a little further 

 towards glaucescens proper, thus increasing the probability that knmlieni 

 may prove eventually to be merely a geographical race of that species. 

 Nevertheless this is still only a probability, for a wide gap remains to be 

 bridged before the two can be united as conspecies. I may add that Mr. 

 Park's specimen has an unusually short, stout bill, which is further 

 peculiar in having the superior outline of the maxilla almost perfectly 

 straight from the base to the angle. — William Brewster.] 



The Occipital Style of the Cormorant. — This stj'Ie, which in skeletons is 

 found articulated with the occiput, is in reality the ossified raphe of 



