General Notes. 
183 
A Second Massachusetts Specimen of the Red-bellied Wood- 
pecker ( Centuries carolinus'). — At the establishment of Pertia W. 
Aldrich, the well-known taxidermist, I have lately seen a freshlv-made 
skin of a Red-bellied Woodpecker which Mr. Aldrich tells me was shot at 
Cohasset, May 28, 1881, by a young son of Matthew Luce, Esq., of Boston. 
The bird is an adult male in fine plumage. It is the second known Massa- 
chusetts specimen, the first having been recorded in the last (April) 
number of the Bulletin, by Gordon Plummer, Esq. — William Brewster, 
Cambridge , Mass. 
[Although the two specimens alluded to above are doubtless the only ones 
thus far known to have been actually taken in Massachusetts it may be 
well to call attention to two earlier records. In my “Catalogue of Birds 
found at Springfield, Mass.,” etc., published in 1864 (Proc. Essex Institute, 
Vol. IV, pp. 48-98) , I gave the species as a “Summer Visitant. Accidental” ; 
and add : “ Saw one May 13th 1863” ( 1 . c., p. 53). I also cite Peabody 
(Rep. on the Birds of Mass.) as stating that Professor Emmons had found 
it breeding in Western Massachusetts. Whatever may be the weight of 
the testimony last cited, I will take this opportunity of stating more fully 
the instance I give on my own authority. The specimen was shot and 
fell, but just as it reached the ground scaled off a few feet into a pile of 
brush thickly overgrown with bushes, and a prolonged search, repeatedly 
renewed on subsequent days, failed to discover the bird. Nothing in my 
ornithological experience ever made so deep an impression on my memory, 
or gave me keener dissappointment, for I knew what a prize I had lost. 
The species was then well known to me, and was as distinctly recognized 
as it could have been had I had it actually in hand. A specimen of this 
species has since been taken by Mr. E. I. Shores within five miles (at 
Suffield, Conn, (see Merriam’s Birds of Conn., p. 65), of the locality 
where my example was shot. — J. A. Allen.] 
A curious Colaptes. — The most remarkable case of C. mexicanus 
+ auratus which has come under my observation is that of a specimen 
taken here February 20, 1881. The bird is mexicanus , excepting the 1st, 
2d, 3d, and 5th tail feathers of the left side, which are auratus — the golden- 
yellow in striking contrast with the orange-red of the rest of the tail. The 
specimen also illustrates the rare anomaly of bilateral asymmetry in color- 
ation. It is deposited in the National Museum. — Elliott Coues, Fort 
Whii>pl e i Arizona. 
A Vernacular Synonomy. — The compiling of a list of the names of 
our birds in use among the people to whom they are popularly known has 
always seemed to me a matter both of interest and value; and I have for 
some years been making notes for such a Vernacular Synonomy, as it 
might be termed. There is more in it than the mere grouping of this 
class of information, since opportunities for philological study exist in 
plenty, and other general facts of interest are likely to be brought out. 
As an unimportant example of what I mean, take the case of the Golden- 
winged Woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus ) which is variously known as 
follows : 
