General Notes. 
[July 
1 86 
Bachman’s activity, it is strange that so important an acquisition was not 
announced either by him or his intimate friend Audubon. Still there 
would seem to be no present reason for doubting that the bird really came 
from Florida, to which it is now positively accredited for the first time. 
The only previous records for the United States at large are Audubon’s 
well-known one of a flock seen in Louisiana and Dr. Coues’s mention 
(Key, p. 264) of some fragments of a specimen from the Rio Grande. — 
William Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
Rails and Snipe in Ohio in Winter.— Page 124 of the April num- 
ber of the Bulletin contains a note by Dr. Elliott Coues on the wintering 
of the Sora Rail at the North. The following from my field notes may 
be of interest in this connection : “Nov. 23, 1880. — Shot two Virginia 
Rails. Saw one Wilson’s Snipe. Weather has been very cold, mercury 
below zero for three nights, everything frozen, ice on canal 4 inches thick.” 
These birds were not in holes, were not hibernating, nor were they sick. 
I flushed them from a tussock of dried grass in a marsh along the Ohio 
canal. They could and did fly well. It is impossible to tell how long they 
would have remained in this locality had I not killed them, but I trust 
they would have staid later than December 12. — Howard Jones, Circle- 
ville , Ohio. 
Breeding of the Mallard in New England. — With reference to 
the statement in Stearns’s “New England Bird-Life,” that the authorities 
do not appear to be aware of the breeding of the Mallard in New Eng- 
land, I receive a note from Mr. Elisha Slade of Somerset, Mass., to the 
effect that the bird is a regular breeder in his neighborhood. — Elliott 
Coues, Washington , D. C. 
The Glaucous Gull ( Larus glaucus ) at Portland, Maine. — An 
instance of this Gull’s occurrence in the vicinity of Portland is at last fur- 
nished by the capture of a specimen at Peake’s Island, April 27, 1883. I 
examined the bird in the shop of Mr. John Fleming of Portland, to whom 
it was sent for preservation. — Nathan Clifford Brown, Portland , Me. 
The Common Cormorant on the Coast of South Carolina. — In 
the collection of the College of Charleston (South Carolina) I have 
lately examined two specimens of Graculus carbo which are labelled as 
having been captured near that city. The southward wanderings of the 
species on the Atlantic coast do not seem to have been previously traced 
beyond the Middle States. — William Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
Occurrence of the Northern Phalarope and Audubon’s War- 
bler, and Nesting of the Mocking Bird, in Western Kansas. — 
Fort Wallace, where the following observations were made, is situated on 
the Kansas Pacific Railway, within twenty-five miles of the west line of 
