General Notes. 
59 
1SS3-1 
The Cardinal Grosbeak in Massachusetts. — On November 14, 
1880, Mr. J. E. Fowle took a Cardinal Grosbeak ( Cardinalis virginiana . ) 
in this place. It was with Chickadees ( Parus atricapillus') hopping 
around on low' bushes. It did not have the appearance of an escaped cage 
bird, such as worn tail feathers, long claws, etc. — E. H. Richards, Wo- 
burn, Mass. 
Crows Fishing. — A propos of some notes recently published by Mr. 
Chamberlain on the fish-eating propensities of the Crows of New Bruns- 
wick, Mr. Manly Hardy writes me that he has twice seen Crows fishing in 
the Penobscot River near Bangor. On one occasion several of them were 
flying about over the water occasionally dipping down like Swallows, and 
seizing some floating matter which he thought might be offal from ves- 
sels. At another time they were making frequent forays from a boom- 
pier, to which they returned after each flight. They often struck the 
water with sufficient force to violently agitate its surface but never 
actually dove. 
Mr. Hardy also speaks of their eating sea-urchins and other shell-fish, 
a habit which, of course, has been already reported ; and he has known 
them to devour a string of twenty good-sized trout which had been left 
in a spring under water, well concealed, as he supposed, by the over- 
hanging alders. — William Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
The Scissor-tail (Milvulus forjicatus) at Norfolk, Virginia. — In 
January. 1882, there was sent to the Smithsonian Institution, by Mr. R. B. 
Taylor, of Norfolk, Va., a fine specimen of this species which that gentle- 
man had shot January 2 in his door-yard in that city. The specimen 
was sent in the flesh, and being too much decomposed to skin, is now 
preserved in alcohol in the U. S. National Museum (Catal. No. 85,934). 
— Robert Ridgway, Washington , D. C. 
The Calliope Hummingbird and Pygmy Owl in Montana. —The 
past season I had the pleasure of capturing in the Belt Mountains, the two 
following western birds: S tell ul a calliope Gould, $ Gold Run. May 24, 
1882; Glaucidium gnoma Wagl., $ Gold Run, April 14, 1882. They are 
the only individuals of the species I have ever seen, and are certainly rare 
in this part of the Territory. — R. S. Williams, Gold Run , Mont. 
On some Remarkable Points of Relationship between the Amer- 
ican Kingfishers. — In handling specimens of the American Kingfishers 
the writer has often been impressed with some very curious features of 
relationship which he does not remember to have seen noticed, and which, 
therefore, he takes this opportunity of bringing before the readers of the 
Bulletin. 
The American Kingfishers, so far as known, comprise six species,* all 
belonging to the genus Ceryle. These six species fall into three very 
* Two geographical races, which pass current for “species” are not included, these 
being C. stellata, Meyen, and C. cabanisi , Tschudi, the former belonging to C. torquata, 
Linn., and the latter to C. americana , Gm. 
