50 Brewer’s Changes in our North American Fauna. 
(IT, p. 392). .These claims not being accepted as authentic, the 
supposed examples being attributed to our Rhyacophilus solitarius, 
the Green Tatler was not included by Mr. Cassin in the ninth vol- 
ume of the Pacific Railroad Reports. The very close resemblance 
of these two species, T. ochropus and T. solitarius , both in regard to 
their physical structure and their general habits, — a resemblance 
so close that, although Kaup refers the two species to different 
genera, a suspicion of their being only varieties of one species has 
suggested itself to at least one of my “ variety ” loving friends, — 
seems to warrant us in looking for nearly identical habits in their 
mode of nesting. The recently ascertained fact that the T. ochropus 
nests in trees, making use of the deserted nests of Hawks, Crows, 
Jays, and other birds, makes it apparently worth the while of our 
own collectors to, ascertain if our solitarius has not the same habits, 
and perhaps explains why it is that we have so long suffered the 
egg of this species to remain undiscovered. I have never yet seen 
a single well-authenticated example of its egg. All purporting to 
be eggs of this species were referable either to AEgialitis vocifera or 
to Tringoides macularius , generally the latter. It may be, there- 
fore, that we have not looked for the eggs of the solitary Tatler 
in the right place, and that “ Excelsior ” should be the motto of 
those who would succeed in their researches for authentic speci- 
mens. So far the eggs credited to the T. solitarius bear a very 
suspicious resemblance to one of the two species mentioned. Natu- 
rally an egg of the solitary Tatler should more resemble in size, 
shape, and markings an egg of T. ochropus , which is oblong in 
shape, 1.50 in length, and somewhat similar to eggs of Gambetta 
flavipes. The egg of the Tringoides macularius , which in many 
cabinets does duty for that of T. solitarius , is of a rounded oval, 
and only about 1.10 inches long. 
Larus canus, Linn. European Sea-mew. This species is in- 
cluded by Nuttall as a North American bird (Water Birds, p. 299). 
It is so given also by Bonaparte (Syn. 1828, No. 296), and by 
Richardson (Faun. Bor. Am. II, p. 420), but the last two are re- 
garded by Mr. Lawrence as synonymes for Larus delaivarensis , Ord. 
There appears to be, at least up to the present time, no authentic 
record of the European Larus canus in North America, unless we 
accept Larus brachyrhynchus as a variety of the European bird, and 
not as having specific distinctness. 
In June, 1876, my attention was called by Howard Saunders 
