126 
General Notes. 
descriptions of plumage and careful measurements furnished by Mr. Green- 
wood are conclusive of the identity of his bird, while I have Dr. Brewer’s 
high authority for stating that the other is certainly C. americanus. — W. 
Brewster, Cambridge , Mass. 
Occurrence of Ross’s Goose (A user rossii) on the Pacific Coast 
and Inland. — Until very recently the Ross’s Goose, Chen, or Horned 
Wavy, as it was called by Ilearne, has been considered a very rare spe- 
cies, and the six or seven specimens in the Smithsonian Collection, with 
perhaps one or two others in this country, presumably represented all the 
specimens known. In 1876 Captain Bendire chronicled it as a visitant of 
the interior lakes and rivers of Oregon in winter, and secured possession 
of a single individual. 
While in San Francisco last November I learned from various sources 
that a number of specimens of this Goose had been obtained from season 
to season from the markets, nearly all in October. Recently, as I learn 
from Mr. Ridgway, Mr. C. A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., has sent the Smith- 
sonian two specimens with information that establishes the fact that, at 
some seasons at least, the Ross’s Goose is by no means a very uncom- 
mon bird along the coast, and even in the interior lakes and rivers. A 
single collector has procured for him seven individuals about Sacramento, 
and, as he states, might have sent in, at least, twenty more ; but, as they 
were in the immature plumage, he believed them to be valueless. The 
same person states to Mr. Allen that for the past ten years he is certain 
he has seen half a dozen or so each season, but that this year the bird has 
been more numerous than ever. Mr. Belding has also sent a specimen to 
the Smithsonian Institution, with notes indicating the occurrence of this 
Goose in the tule beds near Stockton. Mr. Allen is of the opinion that the 
unprecedented cold weather of the past winter has had an influence in the 
unusual abundance of these Geese, and thinks that they have been driven 
from their more usual winter quarters somewhat to the north. It is prob- 
ably safe to say that this Goose is a regular fall migrant in the latitude of 
San Francisco, and doubtless erelong specimens will have so multiplied 
as to be generally represented in cabinets. — H. W. Henshaw, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 
Note on Bucephala islandica. — Dr. J. Bernard Gilpin has pub- 
lished * an interesting article on the specific distinctions of this species 
from B. clangula. Besides the well-known outward marks of differences 
especially observable in the head, he finds important anatomical charac- 
ters in the structure of the trachea, bronchi, and lower larynx. According 
to the plate, the difference is very strongly marked. In the words of the 
* Pages 390 - 403, with a plate, in some periodical not named in the over- 
sheets which have reached me. Doubtless the publication of the Nova Scotia 
Institute. 
