General Notes. 
183 
A Second Massachusetts Specimen of the Red-bellied Wood- 
pecor ( Centnrus carolinus'). — At the establishment of Pertia W. 
Aldricfcn the well-known taxidermist, I have lately seen a freshlv-made 
skin of aSRed-bellied Woodpecker which Mr. Aldrich tells me was shotyt 
Cohasset,\jay 28, 1881, by a young son of Matthew Luce, Esq., of Bos#m. 
The bird is aH adult male in fine plumage. It is the second known Massa- 
chusetts specirtmn, the first having been recorded in the last/(April) 
number of the Bulletin, by Gordon Plummer, Esq. — William Brewster, 
Cambridge , Massi\ / 
[Although the twoSmecimens alluded to above are doubtless the only ones 
thus far known to haveSbeen actually taken in Massachusetts it may be 
well to call attention to tWo earlier records. In my “Catalogue of Birds 
found at Springfield, MassV etc., published in 1864 CFroc. Essex Institute, 
Vol. IV, pp. 48-98), Igave thdSspecies as a “Summer Visitant. Accidental” ; 
and add: “ Saw one May I3th\r863” ( 1 . c., p. stff. I also cite Peabody 
(Rep. on the Birds of Mass.) asVtating that Professor Emmons had found 
it breeding in Western Massachusetts. Whatever may be the weight of 
the testimony last cited, I will take\his opaefrtunity of stating more fully 
the instance I give on my own authority The specimen was shot and 
fell, but just as it reached the ground Wled off a few feet into a pile of 
brush thickly overgrown with busheyaNad a prolonged search, repeatedly 
renewed on subsequent days, faileyto discover the bird. Nothing in my 
ornithological experience evertryfie so deepen impression on my memory, 
or gave me keener disappointment, for I kritew what a prize I had lost. 
The species was then well kn6wn to me, and w^s as distinctly recognized 
as it could have been had Y had it actually in iWid. A specimen of this 
species has since been/taken by Mr. E. I. ShoreS. within five miles (at 
Suffield, Conn, (see Jflerriam’s Birds of Conn., p\6s), of the locality 
where my example yvas shot. — J. A. Allen.] \ 
A curious Colaptes. — The most remarkable case \f C. mexicanus 
-\- auratus which has come under my observation is that Of a specimen 
taken heryFebruary 20, 1881. The bird is mexicanus , excepnVg the 1st, 
2d, 3d, add 5th tail feathers of the left side, which are auratus — tH& golden- 
yellow in striking contrast with the orange-red of the rest of the taUNThe 
speebnen also illustrates the rare anomaly of bilateral asymmetry in color- 
ation. It is deposited in the National Museum. — Elliott Coues, Fold 
Whipple, Arizona . 
A Vernacular Synonomy. — The compiling of a list of the names of 
our birds in use among the people to whom they are popularly known has 
always seemed to me a matter both of interest and value ; and I have for 
some years been making notes for such a Vernacular Synonomy, as it 
might be termed. There is more in it than the mere grouping of this 
class of information, since opportunities for philological study exist in 
plenty, and other general facts of interest are likely to be brought out. 
As an unimportant example of what I mean, take the case of the Golden- 
winged Woodpecker ( Colaptes auratus') which is variously known as 
follows : 
