General Notes. 
127 
text: “In the male common golden-eye, the wind-pipe, soon after leaving 
the throat and before it enters the breast, has a very sudden enlargement, 
almost as it were a broad hoop thrown obliquely around its stem ; on the 
inside this leaves large circular pouches on the posterior surface before 
the restriction of the pipe takes place again. In the Rocky Mountain 
species, the wind-pipe simply and gradually enlarges itself, becoming re- 
stricted again before it enters the breast. In one the enlargement is 
suddenly from 2-8 of an inch to an inch and 1-8, while in the other from 
2-8 to 5-8 of an inch, and that with no protuberances. In the males 
alone of both species there is, after the wind-pipe has entered the breast, 
that very complicated sub-quadrangular knob, from which the bifurcation 
of the pipe proceeds.” — Elliott Coues, Washington, D. C. 
Notes on the Sea-Birds of the Grand Banks. — During Sep- 
tember, 1878, Mr. Raymond L. Newcomb of Salem, well known as an 
ornithological collector, spent several weeks on and near the Grand Banks, 
under the direction of Professor S. F. Baird, for the purpose of obtaining 
specimens of the various sea-birds to be found there. Mr. Newcomb left 
Gloucester August 28, and returned September 19, and although much of 
his time was engrossed with other duties, he secured many interesting 
birds. The following is an abstract from his note-book, kindly communi- 
cated for publication in the Bulletin. 
August 29, off Thatcher’s Island, several Jaegers were seen which 
were thought to be Stercorarius pomatorhinus. The next day (August 30) 
the first Shearwater ( Pvffinus major'), the “ Hagdon ” of the fishermen, 
was met with, the vessel being then just out of sight of land. The fol- 
lowing day (August 31) several Terns (thought to be either Wilson’s or 
the Arctic) were seen, some Petrels, and three flocks of “ Sea Geese,” 
- — one containing about twenty individuals, and the others four or five 
each. Three of the “ Sea Geese ” were shot, and p roved to fee Red Pha- 
laropes ( Phalaropus fulicarius). Several Skua or Jaeger Gulls were also 
seen. On September 1 only one “ Hagdon ” and two or three Petrels 
were seen all day. Under date of September 2, Mr. Newcomb writes: — 
“Saw what Captain Collins called a ‘Sea Hen,’ a number of ‘ Hags ’ and 
Mother Carey’s Chickens. The ‘Sea Hen’ is the Skua Gull [ Stercorarius 
catarrhactes], about which considerable stir has been made the past summer.* 
The Fish Commission secured one, but I did not get any ; still, our ‘skipper,’ 
who is an intelligent and very persistent man, says he will get one, just to make 
his word good. The fishermen say they are seen comparatively often, still I 
feel somewhat doubtful, owing to- the meagre and inaccurate knowledge which 
this class of men have of the subject.” 
“ September 3. On Sable Island Bank, at anchor. I shot to-day twenty-three 
birds, including [the Greater] Shearwater in two plumages, some Petrels ( Cymo - 
* See this Bulletin, Vol. Ill, p. 188. 
