Notes on <I>Melanerpes f. bairdi</I> in New Mexico

General Notes.

345

I returnedtothe

ground

June 10, and put ⁱⁿthe dayexaminingthe nests, etc., collecting two

more

sets of two eggs each.

One

of the sets

was

nearly readyto hatch, butwith careI

was

able tosave it.

The

eggsare allwhite, or rather bluish white,without markings or shell stains. It

having rained nearlyeveryday since the

commencement

of the month, thetwo last sets collected are

somewhat

soiled andstained by the wet leaves in the nests.

The

eggs measured by sets as follows, viz.: ist,

*-55

X

1.33, 1.52

X

1.36; 2nd, 1.76

X

1.48, 1.65

X

1.35; 3d, 1.70

X

1.39, 1.56

X

1.35; 4th, 1.70

X

1.37, 1.6S

X

1.30; 5th, 1.75

X

1.30; 6th, 1.54

X

1.31, 1.45

X

1.24;7th, 1.70

X

^{1.38, 1.}68

X

1.43.

The

old nestshadafew leavesforliningin additionto theleavesattached tothetwigsused inre- pairingthe same,but the

new

ones appeared to be without additional leaves.

They

wereall builteither in theforks from the

main

body, orin the forksofthelargerlimbs of thecottonwood and elm trees, andwereat leastfrom ten to a hundred rods apart, were not bulky,and

when

old wouldbe takenforthenestsof the

common

Crow.

They

rangedinheight from twenty-five tofiftyfeetfromtheground.

—

^{N. S.} Goss, Tofeka,

Kan.

The

Merlin {Falcoazsalou) in Greenland.

— We

have recently received from Dr. C. F.

Wiepken,

of the

Museum

of Oldenburg,

Germany,

afine specimenof Falco asalonLath., from Greenland. This

makes

an addi- tionalspecies forthefauna ofNorth America, Ibelieve.

The

record is as follows: "Falco cesalon Lath.

$

^{juv. Shot at}

^Cape

Farewell, Greenland,

May

3, 1875." Itisiesalonwithoutanyquestion

—

a

young

of the precedingyear.

We

gotit with other specimens from the

same

localitythrough Dr.

W.

,and Ihave

no

reasonwhatevertodoubtthe correctness of thelabel, as of thehundreds

we

^{have received} from

him

I

have notasyet detectedany discrepancies,andthe labels areusually

much more

minute than the above. Gov. Fencker,

who

wasstationed at

God-

havn, Greenland,as

Governor when

Iwasthere, told

me

he hadoccasion- allyseenasmall

Hawk

between Julianshaab and Gothaab,but had failed to securea specimen. These were probablyF. cesalon.

— Ludvig Kum-

lien,Public

Museum,

Mihvaukec, Wis.

Notes on Melanerpesformicivorus bairdi in

New

Mexico.

—

To-dayis

the6th of August (1887), and while out collectingat a point

some

two milesfrom Fort Wingate,

New

Mexico, I shot and secured a fine adult male specimenofthis Woodpecker, and in unusually

good plumage

for thistime of the year, withfeworno pin-feathers presentto speak of; a feature whereinitdiffered from a

number

of otherPicidse taken on the

same

occasion.

Having

collectedbirds in this locality for the past two andahalfyearswithoutever havingseen aspecimen ofthis

Woodpecker

here before; andinviewof the factthatour 'Check List'gives its habitat and range as "Pacific Coast

Region

ofthe United States, east into Arizo- na,south intoMexico,"Idesire to

make

thisrecord here ofits capturein the Territoryof

New

Mexico,and atapoint furthereast than, so far as thewriterisaware, it haseverbeen notedbefore.

At

thepresent writing

7 A

6

^{General Notes. [October}

I have

no means

of ascertaining

how

far north true

M.

formicivorus ranges, but take the bird

now

in

my

possessiontobeour

M.

_f. bairdi.

This evening I

made

a skinof this specimen,and in preparingitfound nodifficulty in passingthe skinof the neck over the skull. Ialso noted that theepibranchials of the hyoidarchesreached a pointon the top of thecraniumat an imaginarylinejoiningthe posterior peripheriesof the outerborders ofthe orbits, inotherwords, no furtherforwards than the parietalregionat the vault of the skull.

When

Ido

make

skinsof birds now-a-days, Ihaveahabitofrunninga thread through alabelgiving full data in regard tothe specimen, then pass the needle through the body, the eyes,andthebackofthe skull,allofwhich

we

have

removed

in

making

the skin, tie thewhole in abunch, and throw with others into a jarof fresh alcohol. It is a capital practice,saves excellent material,and was resorted to in the present instance.

—

^R.

W. Shufeldt,

Fort Wingate.

N.

Mexico.

Egg-laying extraordinary in Colaptes auratus.

— On May

6th, 1883, I

found in a large willow tree, a holecontaining two eggsof thisbird; I

tookone, leaving the other as a nest-egg, and continued to do this day afterday untilshe had laidseventy-oneeggs.

The

bird rested two days, taking seventy-//trie days to lay seventy- oneeggs. Ithinkthisissomethingvery unusual; Ihavequitefrequently heardof from fifteen totwenty-eight being taken from onebird,butthis isa large

number

comparatively. Ihave the setcomplete,ⁱⁿ

my

cabinet, ami prize itvery highly.

Thiswaspublished in asmall journalcalled the

Young

Oologist', Vol.

I,No. 2, 1S84; but ^it beingaratherobscure paper, and not reaching the general public, I concluded to send it to 'The Auk' for publication.

—

Charles

L. Phillips, Taunton. Mass.

The Range

ofQuiscalusmajor.

—

In the A. O. U. 'CheckList' the hab- itatof the Boat-tailed Crackle isgiven as the "coast region ofthe South Atlanticand GulfStates, from North Carolina toTexas."

The

failure to assign a

more

northern limit of range is evidently an oversight, forthe bird occursas aregular inhabitantas farnorthat leastasCobb's Island,Virginia, abouttwenty-five milesabove

Cape

Charles, and breeds in considerable

numbers

on certain of the

marshy

islands off the coast above the

mouth

of Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Robert

Ridgway

kindly informs

me

that during his visit to this region in July, 1881, he saw straggling flocks of this species almost daily, and killed several birds.

They

weremoulting and in verypoor plumage, and none were ^preserved.

Mr.

Ridgway

further states that although he found no nests'he has

"no

doubt these birdswere, orhad been,breeding either in the marshes

on

Cobb'sIsland orelse

on

oneof the neighboring islands." InJuly, 1SS4, I noticed the birds occasionallyon Cobb's Island and

on

several of the islands adjacent thereto,and

saw numbers

ofeggs that had been taken earlier in the season, chiefly on a small sparsely-wooded island, by the keeper of the U. S. Life Saving Station on Cobb's Island.—

Hugh M.

Smith, Washington,

D.

C.