Mr. Chapman One or

l8o

^{General Notes.} _Y\p^\

The White

Gyrfalcon in

New

England.

— Not

longsinceMr. George A. Boiirdnian wrote

me

thathe hadheardof thecapture, ineasternMaine, of a very light-colored Gyrfalcon.

Upon my

expressinga lively interest in thematter he very kindly put

me

in correspondence with Mr. John Claytonof Lincoln,Maine,M'ho

mounted

thespecimen and from

whom

I

havejust purchasedit.

Although

too dark colored to be typical of that form it is, nevertheless, an unmistakable example of Falco islandus Briinn. It is a

young

bird and, judging by themeasurements,a male, although the sexwas notdeterminedbydissection. ItwasshotinSouth

Winn

(justsouthofLincoln)aboutOctober8(Mr.Cla^-tonreceived iton the9th and in such fresh condition thathedoes not think it couldhave been dead

more

than twenty-four hours), 1893, by a

young man named

Wyman who

founditperchedon atelegraphpole.

Thiscapture is of considerable importance, for the

White

Gyrfalcon does notappear to have been beforetaken in

New England

^if, indeed, it

has occurred anywhere within the United States. It has been reported

more

than once, but in every case, apparently, either on insufficient evidence ormistakenidentification.

The

repeatedchangesorinterchanges of

names

in the Gyrfalcon group have also led to

much

confusion.

A

recent instance of this is the mention by Mr.

Chapman

(Birds of Vicinityof

New York

City, 1S94, p. 41) under "7^ islatidus Briinn." of the

Long

Island.

(New York)

specimen originally recorded by Mr.

Lawrence

(Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist.

New

York,VIII, 1866,p. 280) and since referred to by Mr.

Ridgway

(Hist. N.

Am.

Bii-ds, III, 1874, p. 114) and by Mr. Dutcher (Auk, X, 1893,p.274) as F. islandicus} Mr.

Chapman now

writes

me

that he has never seen this specimen and^"had not the slightest intention of changing its original identification,"but that he wasmisled ^"into givingF.islandusas the equivalent of F. islandicus.'"

It

may

be well, therefore, toimprove this and everyconvenient oppor- tunityto reiteratethefact that,underthearrangement first proposed by Dr. Stejneger (Auk, II, 1885, pp. 187,188)and afterwardsadopted inthe A. O. U. Check-List, the birdwhich, priorto 18S5,wassogenerallycalled F. candicafis

now

^stands as F. islandus, while that formerly

known (among American

writers at least) as F. islandicus has

become

F.

rusticolus.

— William Brewster,

Cambridge, Mass.

The American Barn Owl

Breedingat

Washington,

D.

C,

inWinter.

—

One

or

more

pairs of

American

Barn

Owls

(Sirix pratincola') have been

known

tobreedfor a

number

ofyearsin oneof thetowersof the SmithsonianInstitution,and eggsof thisspeciestaken hereinJune, 1861, and Junei,1865, are

now

intheUnitedStatesNational

Museum

collection.

'Sincewriting the above I have examinedthis

Long

Islandbird,which is

now

in the collection of the Brooklyn Historical Society. It provestobe a perfectly typical example of Falco rusticolus gryfalco in nearly mature plumage.

%fl]

^{General Notes.}

_l8i

On

Dec.S, 1893, a

young

bird which had but recenllv left its nest (a gooddeal of

down

stillshowing throughitsplumage) was caught by one ofthe

watchmen

andturned over tothe Ornithological collection,where

I saw it while still in the flesh. This specimen was probably hatched

some

time in October, and I considered this a rather remarkable, late breeding record at the time.

On

?'cb. 27, 1895, another specimen of about the same age waspickedup in :i bush in the Smithsoniangrounds, in which itbecameentangled,andthis wascertainlynot overtwo

months

old and

must

have been hatched in the latter part of December, 1894, if

notearlyin January, 1895, certainly amost unusual time of the vearfor this

Owl

to breed in this latitude.

—

CuAS. E. Bendire, Washington, D. C.

The

Great

Gray and Hawk Owls

in St.

Lawrence

County, N. Y.

—

While

at Ogdensburg, St.

Lawrence

Co., N. Y., recently,I examined a localcollection of

mounted

birds and study skins

owned

by Mr. 11. M.

Davidson. In it I found three Great

Gray Owls

{Scotiapte.x cincrea), allof wiiich had been sliol in the county within a period of five years.

Ialsofoundfour

American Hawk Owls

{Stirnia alula caparoc//) which had been secured within the past few years in a large

swamp

in the townshipof

Hammond,

which isinthe

same

county.

On

the 19th of December, _1894, while at Carthage, which is at the western borderofJefferson County, Ne^v

York

State,I sawa Grackle

—

species not determined,as the bird flewon

my

approach.

The

daywas bright and clear, with the temperature but little above 20°.

A

farmer near

me

remarked thathe "guessedthat bird had

made

a mistake and thoughtspringhad come."

— William

Dutciier, Netv Tork City.

An

Albino

Ruby-crowned

Kinglet.

— -On

F'ebruary₄ I shot, near ^this place, anearlyperfectalbinoRuby-crowned Kinglet{Reguluscalendula).

The

birdwasafemaleand the onlyoneIhave seen herefor

some

time.

The

body is pine cream\ white, with a

wash

of lemon yellow on the

rump;

headgrayishbrown,with

numerous

flecksofwhite-

The

edgesof thetail and

wing

feathersareedged withyellowish white, giving afrosty appearance to theclosed

wing

and tailand hiding largelythe otherwise duskyfeathers.

—

A.

W. Anthony, San

Diego, Cal.

Clark's Nutcracker.

—

^In

^my

^{noteon Clark's}Nutcracker in 'The

Auk

^'

forJanuary, 1895 (p.82), theheadingreads^'Clark'sNutcrackerinEastern Missouri.' This is a geographical error and should read Western Mis- souri,asKansasCityisdivided bytheMissouri-Kansas State line and is situatedin the western borderofJackson County.

Mr.Goss,in his ^'Birdsof Kansas,'speaks of this species as being an accidental visitant toKansas and mentionsonlyone specimenas secured inthat State,andof whicha part ofthe skinwas sent to

him

foridentifi- cation. Thisbird was killed

August

13,near the south lineof Marshall