General Notes. 
101 
being white), and measured seventy-eight inches in expanse. It was shot 
by a farmer three miles east of Peekskill, on the 16th of November, 1877. 
A third specimen was taken in the Palisades of the Lower Hudson in 
October, 1875. This was a fine adult specimen. The sportsman who shot 
it said that “ he saw it in a tree over his head, and killed it with a charge 
of No. 9 shot.” 
I have seen this Eagle on several occasions, but never in summer. In 
March, 1876, two Golden Eagles were found in a certain spot in Put- 
nam County for several weeks, but I did not succeed in shooting them. 
In April, 1872, I saw one twice, whose tail was all white, save a narrow 
terminal bar of black. 
An aged hunter, Mr. William LeForge, positively asserts that Eagles 
nest upon the cliffs north of West Point. In support of this statement, he 
related to me, in substance, the following circumstance : A few years ago, 
(about ten ?) on the occasion of the death of an old man, who lived the 
life of a hermit, near the summit of a mountain between “ Cro’s Nest ” 
and “ Storm King,” the remains had to be carried down to the foot of the 
mountain to the river. On their way down the company (conducted by 
LeForge) halted at the foot of a ledge, where their attention was attracted 
to the “ hissing ” of some young Eagles on the rocks above them. — Edgar 
A. Mearns, Highland Falls , N. Y. 
Meaning of the Word “Anhinga.” — Correspondence of interest 
respecting etymologies of ornithological names with W. C. Avery, of 
Contentment, Ala., elicits the following derivation and meaning of the 
strange-looking word “ Anhinga,” as applied to the Snake-birds (species of 
Plotus). % 
“ Thinking it probably Spanish, I sought it in Leone’s Dictionary, 
where I found, not Anhinga, but Anhina, 1 an aquatic bird of prey in 
Brazil, called the Darter, Plotus Anhina is undoubtedly the Spanish or 
Portuguese word ; but how has it been corrupted into Anhinga ? In a 
French Encyclopaedia I find the following : ‘ Anhinga, nom bresilien de 
ces oiseaux La longueur demesuree de leur cou, jointe a sa minceur, 
leur donne une figure etrange .... on dirait des canards qui ont pour cou 
un long serpent.’ Hence the name ‘ Snake-bird,’ Portuguese Anhina, 
from the Latin Anguina l (Anguis, a snake).” This derivation seems to be 
undoubtedly correct, Anhinga being corrupted from Anhina. — Elliott 
Coues, Washington, D. G. 
Late capture of the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher in Massachu- 
setts. — Mr. W. B. Barrows informs me that on November 29, 1876, he 
took a male Empidonax flaviventris, at Reading, Mass. The day was so 
cold that ice was forming rapidly in the shade ; yet the bird had the 
same motions which characterize it in June, and though it had an empty 
stomach, was very fat and apparently in the best of spirits. It was, how- 
ever, silent so far as was observed. I also learn from Mr. H. A. Purdie 
