52 ' General Notes. [January 



fication, and at the same time informed me that he had just killed twentj- 

 foui-. — F. T. Jencks, Providence. R. I. 



Geographical variation in size among certain Anatid.e and 

 Gruid.-e. — While much has been written on the subject of geographical 

 variation in size among birds, I do not remember having read anything 

 bearing upon the following apparent exception to the rule of larger size 

 to the northward. In Birds of the North%vest (p. 723) Dr. Coues has 

 called attention to "something very curious in the relationships that many 

 birds of the families Colymbidoe and Podicifida bear to each other," 

 many of the species of these two families having a ^^fraterculus" or "little 

 brother," that is to say, a representative species differing chiefly if not only 

 in its smaller size. In the family Anatidce there are several similar cases, 

 with this difference : That, whereas in the case of the Loons and Grebes 

 all the fraterculi are of more southern range than their larger represen- 

 tatives, just the reverse is the case among the Geese, and also, in one 

 instance at least, among the Cranes. As examples the following couplets 

 may be cited : — 



Southern Form. Northern (smaller) Representative. 



Olor buccinator. O. columbianus. 



Bernicla canadensis. B. hutchinsi. 



Bernicla occidentalis. B. leucoparia. 



Fidix marila. F. affinis. 



Grus pratensis. G. canadensis. 



And among European species — 



Anser albifrons. A. erythropns. 



Olor cygtms. O. betvicki. 



Some of the above-named representative forms are specifically distinct, 

 while others are allowed only the rank of geographical races ; but in either 

 case, the interesting question arises : Why do these particular examples 

 offer so marked an exception to the acknowledged law of increased size 

 to the northward } 



The larger average size of North American specimens of certain Ana- 

 tidce compared with European examples of the same, or representative, 

 species, is another "law" of geographical variation which I do not remem- 

 ber to have seen noticed ; yet it is a fact which has frequently come under 

 my observation when making comparison of material from the two con- 

 tinents. In several instances it forms almost the only character upon 

 which subspecific separation is based, as in the case of the White-fronted 

 Geese {Anser albifrons and ^. gambeW) and the Golden-eyes (^Clangula 

 glaiiciun and C. aniericana^ . The difference seems to hold good in other 

 species also, as the Mallard {Anas boscas) and Pintail {Dafila actita), in 

 both of which, so far as my observation goes, American specimens are 

 constantly larger than European. — Robert Ridgway. Washington. D. C. 



Caspian Tern in Ohio. — Mr. Frank J. Thompson, of the Zoological 

 Garden of Cincinnati, informs me of the capture of three specimens of 

 Sterna caspia in that vicinity, about Oct. 9, 1882. In companv M-ith as 



