402 General Notes. nue 
GENERAL NOTES. 
Early Notice of Gavia adamsi.— The ‘Narrative’ of Captain (later 
Sir) John Franklin’s first Expedition contains, at p. 222 of the Philadelphia 
edition, 1824, under date of Sept. 26, 1820, while he was at Fort Enter- 
prize, the following easily recognized description : “The last of the water- 
fowl that quitted us was a species of diver, of the same size with the 
Colymbus arcticus, but differing from it in the arrangement of the white 
spots on its plumage, and in having a yellowish white bill. This bird 
was occasionally caught in our fishing nets.”— ELL1ioTr Coues, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 
The Least Tern Breeding on Martha’s Vineyard Island, Massachu- 
setts.— On July 21-22, 1897, while on a walking trip along the south beach 
of Martha’s Vineyard Island, Mass., I found a few pairs of Least Tern 
(Sterna antillarum) undoubtedly breeding near Job’s Neck Pond, anda 
small colony of about fifty birds breeding near Black Point and Chilmark 
Ponds. An egg was found, but as Piping Plovers (#gtalit?s meloda) 
were also on the beach the identification is not positive. A fair number, 
however, of young birds were in the air.— REGINALD HEBER Howe, JR., 
Longwood, Mass. 
The Terns of Penikese — A Correction. — In my article on the ‘Terns 
of Penikese Island, Massachusetts’ (Auk, Vol. XIV, July, 1897, p. 283), at 
foot of the account of nests and eggs, for 40 nests on Gull Island, read 41 
in both places. In ¢ozals of eggs, read 3099 instead of 2055 for Penikese, 
and go instead of 88 for Gull Island.— GrorGcEe H. Mackay, Wantucket, 
Mass. 
Capture of the Little Blue Heron in Connecticut.— A local gunner 
reported the capture of a strange Heron on August 4. Unfortunately it 
was sent off to be mounted before I could sex or even see it. The bird 
has just been shown me, however, mounted, and proves to be an adult 
Ardea cerulea (sex, as I said before, unknown). The man who secured 
the specimen said that he found it in a small fresh-water ‘pond hole’ 
near this place. It was in company with another of the same species, and 
owing to their extreme shyness it was nearly a week before he could 
succeed in getting this one. The individual secured is in perfect 
plumage. —P. J. McCook, (antic, Ct. 
Egialitis nivosa in Florida. — Between the 23d of February, this year, 
and the 2d of April I collected nineteen specimens of typical #gvalitis 
nivosa. The first seven were collected Feb. 23, at the western end of 
Santa Rosa Island, near Fort Pickens. Between the 18th and the 24th of 
March a dozen specimens were taken on the Gulf beach of Santa Rosa 
Island, opposite Mary Esther P. O. In these specimens the females all 
