126 
General Notes. 
alighting in the midst of Rouseville Village, in Cherry Run, was soon 
killed by Dave Phillips, the balance flying a little further, alighting 
in Oil Creek. A general stampede of men and boys now took place, the 
greater part armed with some weapon of warfare ; but Charley Clark, a 
noted sportsman and accurate shot, led the van, and was successful in 
laying over two of the splerfdid birds, and badly wounded a third, at the 
first shot. He afterward shot the third and a fourth, and the vociferous 
crowd returned to town, four men bearing the burdens of the victor’s 
spoils. The larger of the birds shot by Clark was a magnificent creature, 
measuring fifty-one inches from tip of bill to tail, and eighty-six inches 
in extent, and weighing over sixteen pounds ; it is said the one shot by 
Phillips was larger, weighing twenty pounds.” 
I think all were Cygnus cimericanus. I have never heard of C. buccinator 
being seen in this neighborhood. — George B. Sennett, Meadville , Pa. 
The European Widgeon in the United States. — Althouah 
o 
several captures of Mareca penelope have been recorded for the United 
States, yet I do not think that it has been generally considered as occur- 
ring regularly on our coast. In a communication recently received from 
Mr. George O. Welch, of Lynn, Mass., he writes that in December, 1879 , 
he received a male in perfect plumage, which was shot at Currituck, N. C., 
and that he receives one or more adult or immature birds from the same 
locality nearly every winter. He also states that they are well known to 
the gunners along the coast of Virginia, who suppose them to be a cross 
between the American Widgeon and Green-winged Teal. — Ruthven 
Deane, Cambridge, Mass. 
On the Moult of the Bill, or Parts of its Covering, in 
certain Alcidac. — It is now about two years since attention was first 
called to the deciduous nature of portions of the bill, and the palpebral 
ornaments, in the Common Puffin ( Fratercula arctica ), by Dr. Louis 
Bureau, in a very interesting paper in the “ Bulletin de la Societe Zoolo- 
gique de France ” ( 1877 , pp. 1 - 21 , pll. iv, v), a translation of which, 
with notes, by Dr. Elliott Coues, was given in this Bulletin for April, 
1878 (pp. 87 - 91 ). Having in mind Dr. Bureau’s discovery, together 
with Dr. Coues’s hint that “ new inquiry into the various curious North 
Pacific species ” might “ yield up similar secrets,” I gave this matter 
special attention during the past summer, while engaged in a study of 
the North American Alcidce. The result of my investigations is the con- 
clusion that a similar change from the breeding to the winter condition 
exists in the North Pacific species of Fratercula ( F . cornicidata) , in Lunda 
cirrhata, Ceratorliina monocerata , the species of Simorhynchus (*S. cristatellus 
and S. pygmceus ), and in Ciceronia microceros , but probably not in any 
other of the North Pacific forms, except, perhaps, Plialeris psittacula and 
Ptychorhamphus aleuticus. In Fratercula corniculata and Lunda cirrhata , 
the change is very much the same as in F. arctica, only the basal rim of the 
bill, and the nasal shield or saddle, being cast. In Ceratorliina the nasal 
