General Notes. 
63 
within a few yards, dive readily, and appear again a long distance from 
where they dove. They are evidently not used to the lurking dangers of 
the gun, and have probably found their way up the St. Lawrence, up Lake 
Ontario, and across to Lake Erie. There have been to my knowledge at 
least eighteen of them shot. They are generally found in small flocks of 
three or four birds.” The specimen sent arrived in good condition, and 
Mr. Linden has my thanks for the kind attention. — J. A. Allen, 
Cambridge , Mass. 
Capture of Phaethon flavirostris in Western New York. — 
One of the rarest and most interesting of the occurrences of sea-birds, of 
which we now and then hear, has been brought to my notice, the case 
being that of a Tropic Bird in Orleans Co., New York. A letter received 
from Mr. David Bruce, dated Brockport, N. Y., November 18, 1879, gives 
the particulars : — 
“ I enclose a rough sketch of a bird picked up exhausted in a field, after 
a severe southeast storm, at Knowlesville, Orleans Co., about twenty miles 
from here. It was given alive to the Bev. J. H. Langille of that village, 
who killed and preserved it. It is a Tropic Bird, in immature plumage. 
I think the occurrence of this oceanic bird so far inland will interest you.” 
I am also in reception of a letter from Mr. Langille on the same sub- 
ject. Mr. Bruce’s colored sketch, of life-size, shows the species to be 
Phaethon flavirostris of Brandt. It is a bird of the year, undoubtedly, as 
the central tail-feathers are not filamentous, and only project a couple of 
'inches. Both the gentlemen mentioned have my thanks for their kind 
attentions in acquainting me with a case so interesting. — Elliott Coues, 
Washington, D. C. $ 
The Marsh and Sooty Terns in Maine, and other Birds 
rare to the State. — I am indebted to Mr. George A. Boardman for 
the record of a specimen of Sterna anglica which was shot at Grand Menan 
in the latter part of August, 1879, by one of his collectors. The only pre- 
vious New England record* was a specimen taken at Ipswich, Mass., in 
September, 1871. 
At the time Mr. Boardman’s Tern was shot, three specimens of Hydro- 
chelidon nigra were sent to him from the same locality, which Tern seems 
to be of unusual occurrence on the Maine coast. The first coast record 
was given by Mr. N. C. Brown in this Bulletin (Vol. IY, p. 108). At 
about the same date of the above captures a Black Vulture was shot on 
Campobello Island, near Eastport, and a Great White Egret at Grand 
Menan. It was at this time that the Black Skimmers were taken near 
Eastport, and recorded in the Bulletin (Yol. IY, p. 242). The occurrence 
of all these Southern species so far from their usual range must be attrib- 
* Am. Nat., May, 1872, p. 306. 
