6 2 
General Notes. 
[January 
fication, and at the same time informed me that he had just killed twenty- 
four. — F. T. Jencks, Providence , R. /. 
Geographical variation in size among certain Anatid^e and 
Gruid^e. — While much has been written on the subject of geographical 
variation in size among birds, I do not remember having read anything 
bearing upon the following apparent exception to the rule of larger size 
to the northward. In Birds of the Northwest (p. 723) Dr. Coues has 
called attention to “something very curious in the relationships that many 
birds of the families Colymbidee and Podicipidce bear to each other,” 
many of the species of these two families having a “ fraterculus ” or “little 
brother,” that is to say, a representative species differing chiefly if not only 
in its smaller size. In the family Anatidce there are several similar cases, 
with this difference : That, whereas in the case of the Loons and Grebes 
all the fraterculi are of more southern range than their larger represen- 
tatives, just the reverse is the case among the Geese, and also, in one 
instance at least, among the Cranes. As examples the following couplets 
may be cited : — 
Southern Form. 
Olor buccinator. 
Bernicla canadensis. 
Bernicla occidentalis. 
Fulix marila. 
Grus pratensis. 
And among European species — 
Anser albifrons. 
Olor cygnus. 
Northern (smaller) Representative. 
O. columbianus. 
B. hutchinsi. 
B. leucoparia. 
F. a finis. 
G. canadensis. 
A. erythropus. 
O. bezvicki. 
Some of the above-named representative forms are specifically distinct, 
while others are allowed only the rank of geographical races ; but in either 
case, the interesting question arises : Why do these particular examples 
offer so marked an exception to the acknowledged law of increased size 
to the northward ? 
The larger average size of North American specimens of certain Ana- 
tidce compared with European examples of the same, or representative, 
species, is another “law” of geographical variation which I do not remem- 
ber to have seen noticed ; yet it is a fact which has frequently come under 
my observation when making comparison of material from the two con- 
tinents. In several instances it forms almost the only character upon 
which subspecific separation is based, as in fhe case of the White-fronted 
Geese ( Anser albifrons and A. gambeli) and the Golden-eyes ( Clangula 
glauciun and C. americana) . The difference seems to hold good in other 
species also, as the Mallard {Anas boscas ) and Pintail ( Dafila acuta), in 
both of which, so far as my observation goes, American specimens are 
constantly larger than European. — Robert Ridgway. Washington. D. C. 
Caspian Tern in Ohio. — Mr. Frank J. Thompson, of the Zoological 
Garden of Cincinnati, informs me of the capture of three specimens of 
Sterna caspia in that vicinity, about Oct. 9, 1882. In company with as 
