Todd : Birds of Erie and Presque Isle. 509 



26, 1889, from which "a fish, known locally as 'buffalo-sucker,' 

 measuring between eight and nine inches in length was taken." 

 {Birds of Pennsylvania, 1890, 28-29.) There is one specimen in 

 Mr. Sennett's collection, dated November 15, 1889. Mr. Bacon 

 has never heard of it in the spring, but has occasionally seen one in 

 the fall, in every case on the wing, although, he adds, " The fisher- 

 men inform me that the birds when present often alight on the pond- 

 net stakes. On December 14, 1901, a party of four birds of this 

 species flew over me as I was passing down the neck of the Peninsula, 

 one of which I secured. When skinned its throat was found to con- 

 tain two ten-inch perch, one of which was perfectly fresh. I have 

 seen single cormorants on the following dates also: October 7, 1897, 

 December 1, 1900, and November 8, 1901, while I secured from a 

 local gunnerabird which had been taken November 6, 1902." Both 

 specimens to whose capture reference is made are now in the Carnegie 

 Museum. Part of a skeleton, with the entire tail attached, was found 

 on the shore of Misery Bay in the spring of 1 900, evidently belonging 

 to a bird killed the previous fall. The only living bird of this species 

 noted by us was seen off the outside beach on October 9. 



\_Phalacrocorax dilophus floridanus. Florida Cormorant. 



This form may in former years have extended as far north as Erie, and may even 

 have bred. Compare, in this connection, the statement of Dr. F. W. Langdon 

 {Journal Cincinnati Society of Natural History, III., 1880, 229) that two speci- 

 mens, male and female, were taken by Mr. J. B. Porter, in June, 1878, near Fort 

 Clinton, Sandusky Bay, Ohio.] 



16. Pelecanus erythrorhynchos. White Pelican. 



The claim of this species to a place in the present list rests on the 

 following statement, which is quoted from Dr. Warren {Birds of 

 Pennsylvania, 1890, 29-30): "Mr. George B. Sennett, of Erie, 

 informs me a few of these birds were seen, about fifteen or twenty 

 years ago [/. e., between 1870 and 1875], in the neighborhood of 

 Erie city. ' ' Numerous well attested records for this species from con- 

 tiguous areas would seem to justify the reception of the above state- 

 ment at its face value. 



17. Merganser americanus. American Merganser. 



This merganser is not very common or well known to the local 

 gunners. It occurs as a transient visitant, and may possibly remain 

 through the winter. One was seen with a flock of Red-breasted Mer- 

 gansers in Yellow Bass Pond on April 7, this being our only spring 



