■884.] General Notes. ^QQ 



the Irish coast, and tlie Hawks and other small birds contiiuied to follow 

 the vessel, one of the former catching a Stormy Petrel, which it proceeded 

 to devour on the rigging of the ship. That evening two of the Hawks 

 were captured by a sailor, and one of them survived the voyage. On the 

 day after their capture I saw them, and believe they belonged to the 

 American species of Pigeon Hawk {Falco columbartus). On the follow- 

 ing day I caught two Saxicolce, and as there was no chance of keeping 

 them alive, preserved their skins, for I did not feel quite sure about the 

 species. [*] On the 25th a third Saxicola appeared on the scene; and 

 when in latitude 52° N., longitude 30° W., I noticed two more birds, the 

 Land-Rail {Crcx f>ra/ctisis), and the Turnstone {Strepsilas iiiterpres). 

 These were particularly interesting to me, and I was able 10 obtain both 

 of them soon after they alighted on the deck of the ship. The former 

 was in fair condition ; I kept it alive until the 2Sth, stuffing it with small 

 scraps of raw meat, but owing to stormy weather it died on that day. 

 The Turnstone was miserably thin and died in a few hours, though fed as 

 the Land-Rail was. Harting, in his most useful ' Handbook of British 

 Birds,' says of the Rallidae : "Audubon gives two instances of this species 

 [/. e., the Carolina Crake {Crex Carolina)'] having been met with at sea, 

 and as a proof that the short-winged Rallidae are not incapable of sustained 

 flight, it may be noted that during the voyage of the steamship Nova 

 Scotia, from Liverpool to Qiiebec, in October, 1865, when in lat. 26° 28' N. 

 (.'') ; long. 23° 24' W., more than 500 miles from the Irish coast, a Vii-gin- 

 ian Rail (^Rallus virginianus), came on deck and was captured. Both 

 this and the last-named species visit the Bermudas annually, although 

 this group of islands is distant from Cape Hatteras, the nearest point of 

 the North American coast, about 600 miles. The well-known Corn Crake 

 i^Crex pratensis), too, is a summer visitant to Greenland, and has been 

 met with on several occasions on the eastern coast of the United States." 

 I know nothing of the migration of the Turnstone on the American 

 continent, but it usually arrives on the British coast in August, and last 

 summer I shot many specimens on the nth and subsequent days of that 

 month, near the estuary of the River Mersey. At all tiines during our 

 voyage, I noticed Gulls around the ship, and when in mid-ocean a small 

 flock followed for several hours. — C. J. Young, Montreal, Can. 



[* It proved to be Saxicola cenanthe, the Wheatear or Stonechat. These specimens, 

 which are in fall plumage. I have had the pleasure of examining, thanks to the 

 kindness of Mr. Young. — J. A. A.] 



