88 General Notes. Auk 
Jan. 
gether by detached pairs, although in some places where unusually 
abundant they gather daily for a sociable feed. —W1LL1Am L. Dawson, 
Oberlin, Ohio. 
A New Bird for the Virginias.— I have lately received from Mr. Thad- 
deus Surber, White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a young male speci- 
men of the Stilt Sandpiper (Mrcropalama himantopus) which was taken 
on November 2, 1896, near Caldwell, P. O., on the Greenbrier River, six 
miles from the above mentioned Springs. This species has not hitherto 
been reported from either Virginia or West Virginia, although a bird from 
the Patuxent River, Md., has been recorded by Mr. Hugh M. Smith (Auk, 
Vol. II, p. 139). — WittiaM C. Rives, M. D., New Vork City. 
Asarcia spinosa.—In Vol. XXIV of the British Museum Catalogue of 
Birds, Limicole, p. 86, 1896, Dr. Sharpe names a genus Asarcéa, type Parra 
variabilis Linn., 1766, as distinguished from Yacana proper by the reduc- 
tion of the facial appendages to a comparatively small frontal leaf, which 
is trifid, somewhat like a fleur-de-lis; the same cutaneous excrescence in 
the type of Yacana being bifid or heart-shaped, and supplemented by a 
pair of wattles. Assuming the generic sufficiency of this distinction, I 
may remark that Dr. Sharpe’s use of the specific term vardabcl’s in this 
connection is at variance with A. O. U. canons of nomenclature. As 
shown by Elliot, Auk, July, 1888, p. 298, and as admitted by Sharpe, Z. c., 
_Parra variabilis Linn., S. N. 1766, p. 260, was based on Edwards’s Nat. 
Hist. I. 1743, p. and pl. 48, as a mere renaming of Fudéca spinosa Linn. 
S. N. 1758, p. 152, which had the identical basis of Edwards’s pl. 48. 
Consequently varzabzlis is untenable by our rules, and the species should 
continue to stand as Jacana spinosa, unless we recognize the new generic 
name; in which probable contingency Asarcéa spinosa becomes the onym 
of the bird. —E.LLiorr CoueEs, Washington, D. C. 
The Passenger Pigeon (Ectopistes migratorius) in Lewis County, 
N. Y.—In the Boonville (N. Y.) ‘Herald’ of May 27, 1896, appeared an 
item to the effect that Mr. Henry Felshaw had recently seen ‘“‘a large 
flock of Wild Pigeons, perhaps 300 in number, flying westward.” On 
writing to Mr. Felshaw he replied that there was no possibility of his 
having been mistaken, as he had shot, trapped and netted thousands of 
these birds, in former years, and the flock in question was seen when not 
more than fifteen rods distant. The flock, as said, numbered about 300, 
and was seen at about 5.30 A.M. on May 22, the locality being Constable- 
ville, Lewis County, N. Y. He further states, ‘‘I mounted, last spring 
(in April, I think) a cock Pigeon that was shot somewhere near North 
Western.” — W. S. Jounson, Boonville, N. Y. 
Melopelia leucoptera in Osceola County, Florida.— The National Mu- 
seum has recently received a wing and foot of this species from Prof. W. 
