greatly mistaken, Dr. Brewer's specimen and the bird taken by Welch

"at Nahant, Nov. 21, 1875," are identical. bridge, Mass.

- WILLIAM BREWSTER, Cam

When

NOTES ON THE BREEDING HABITS OF THE CASPIAN TERN. collecting at Cobb's Island, Virginia, in company with Mr. S. D. Osborne, during the past season, we were fortunate in securing two sets of the eggs of the Caspian Tern (Sterna caspia), and as our observation of their habits agrees so closely with Mr. Ridgway's account given in the last number of this Bulletin (Vol. V, pp. 221-223) I cannot refrain from confirming it by some additional evidence. Our first nest was taken, June 2, on what is known as Wreck Island, and we only became aware of our promixity to it by the repeated swooping down towards us of the parents, they uttering at each plunge their hoarse, barking cry four or five times in rapid succession. The nest was a mere hollow scooped in the sand somewhat back from the ridge of the beach, without lining save a few fragments of dried sedge stalks, and contained two eggs. The day previous, June 1, we had spent on the northern end of Cobb's Island, fully ten miles from this locality, and there we first saw a pair of this species, whose actions were entirely similar, but no nest rewarded our search at this time. Determined to secure, if possible, another set, we visited this locality again June 3, and were rewarded by finding their nest similarly situated as our first, and containing also two eggs. This number, I believe, with Mr. Ridgway, is their full complement. One of the parent birds was secured and its skin preserved. Two pairs were thus breeding at the same time, separated by ten miles of beach, over which we had passed repeatedly during our stay; and we saw them at no other place or time. This is the more remarkable as we were anxious to find a breeding colony of Royal Terns (Sterna regia), and their large size would undoubtedly have attracted our notice. Hence it seems probable that they always breed singly. The two sets varied but little in coloration or style of marking, much less than is usual among the Sternidæ, those in my collection agreeing well with Mr. Ridgway's description, being oval in shape (not pointed at the smaller end), their clayey ground color washed with olive and marked with irregular spots and small blotches of dark brown and lavender. They are somewhat smaller than his specimens, measuring 2.70 x 1.85 inches and 2.65 x 1.80 inches, respectively, and are in no wise to be mistaken for any eggs of the Royal Tern that I have R. F. PEARSALL, New York City.

seen.

LIST OF OCCURRENCES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS IN EUROPE. I regret that through an oversight I find it necessary to ask the insertion here of the following errata and addenda to my paper on this subject in the last volume of the Bulletin and to apologise to Mr. Saunders and to the readers of the Bulletin therefor:

Errata.- Page 143, line 33, of Vol. V, after “Vaud" insert "Switzerland"; page 212, line 16, leave out "where the locality is misstated"; same page, line 18, after "Harbor" insert "Saunders, 1. c. "; same page,

line 20, for "Wexford" read "Mayo." Also, in connection with my remarks on Wilson's Petrel at page 218, line 29, Mr. Saunders has called my attention to the occurrence, as recorded by him (Bull. Soc. zool. de France, 1877, p. 205, and Zoöl. Record, 1877, Aves, p. 58), of a fine specimen of this species at Malaga, Spain, killed there on 7 August, 1873, and still in his possession.

Professor Reinhardt, of Copenhagen, has sent me a paper by him in “Meddelelser fra den Naturhistorische Forening i Kjobenhavn, 1881,” on the alleged occurrence as recorded by me at page 72, Vol. V of the Bulletin, of four specimens of the American White-winged Crossbill in Denmark (Nos. 1 to 4 of my List), in which he points out that my correspondent, Herr A. Benzon, had been in error in communicating them to me and that he appears to have confused them with L. bifasciata, the Russian and Siberian species, to which they doubtless belonged. He also states a doubt that exists whether the record of No. 2 does not rest on a confusion with No. 1; that Nos. 1 and 3 are still in the University Museum, Copenhagen, but that No. 4 seems to have been lost many years ago. All four are thus to be deleted.

Addenda.—To the record of Actiturus bartramius, p. 149, add :

Great Britain. 7. One, a male, killed in Lincolnshire, purchased in Leadenhall market, and obtained in the flesh by Mr. J. E. Harting, who carefully enquired into and is satisfied of its authenticity as a Britishkilled specimen. Harting, Zoöl., 1880, p. 508. October, 1880.

To the record of Numenius borealis (p. 210) add:

Great Britain. 6. One, a male, Forest of Birse, Kincardineshire. vie-Brown, Zoöl., 1880, p. 485. 21 Sep., 1880.

Har

I would desire, in conclusion, to point out that by removal from the list of the Cedar Bird (footnote, p. 141) and of the American Swan, (as to which latter McGillivray's probable mistake, p. 212, was only pointed out to me by Professor Newton after the first part of the paper had appeared in the Bulletin,) the number of species of North American Birds now recorded as having visited Europe is reduced from sixty-nine, as mentioned in the introduction (Bull., V, p. 66), to sixty-seven.

I would only add that I shall still be glad to receive any further corrections or additions which may add to the accuracy and consequent value of the List. —J. J. Dalgleish, 8 Athole Crescent, Edinburgh, Scotland.

ERRATA.- Vol, V, page iii, line 9, for FOREIGN MEMBERS read FOREIGN HONORARY MEMBERS. Same page, for DR. PHILIP LUTELEY read Dr. PHILIP LUTLEY SCLATER.

NOTES ON SOME BIRDS FROM ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF A SUPPOSED NEW WHIP-POOR-WILL.

BY WILLIAM BREWSTER.

At different times during the past year Mr. F. Stephens has sent me small collections of birds made at various points in southern Arizona and just within the western boundaries of New Mexico. As many of the species are as yet but little known, I take an early opportunity of announcing the capture of these additional specimens, and of presenting some brief but interesting field-notes which have been kindly furnished by Mr. Stephens. A critical study of one or two of the rarer species has suggested some original comments which are also offered in this connection; but certain developments affecting the genus Polioptila, which have been unavoidedly crowded out, will be found elsewhere in the present number of the Bulletin.

1. Harporhynchus bendirei, Coues. ARIZONA THRASHER.Mr. Stephens sends me two specimens of this interesting Thrasher, both males, and both from the neighborhood of Tucson, where the bird seems to be common but very locally distributed. These specimens are in freshly-assumed, perfect spring plumage, a condition which does not appear to have been previously examined, the original types in the Smithsonian collection being in "worn summer dress," and the three individuals taken

subject and care

by Mr. Henshaw in 1874, in fall feathering. My birds have the breast-spotting decidedly more distinct than in H. palmeri but the color of the arrow-heads is not darker than that of the back. After reading all that has been written on the fully comparing bendirei with cinereus, I am inclined to differ from my friend Mr. Henshaw and to agree with Dr. Coues, in considering bendirei a distinct species. Its close relationship to cinereus is evident enough, in spite of the very different coloring of the two birds. But Mr. Henshaw's statement that "the wide separation of the two forms in question, and the fact that the Cape Saint Lucas bird is restricted to the coast, while the Bendire's Thrush inhabits the dry, almost waterless, plains of the interior, will sufficiently account for the discrepancies between them," seems to me rather to concern the original derivation of the Arizona form than to affect its specific standing. The very character of the distribution of the two birds favors the assumption that they are distinct. So far as we know, the Arizona Thrashers are confined to a very limited area, and if, as the evidence goes to show, their colony is absolutely cut off from the equally restricted one of cinereus, there can, of course, be no intergradation between the two, and the well-marked characters of bendirei must entitle it to specific rank.

2. Harporhynchus lecontei (Lawr.) Bp. LECONTE'S THRASHER. A fine adult male taken near Phoenix, Feb. 21, 1880, is in the present collection and brings the number of known specimens up to five. The species is apparently a very rare one in Arizona. Mr. Stephens has seen only two individuals during several years' experience. He writes: "I took this specimen ten miles north-west of Phoenix. The locality was a brushy desert with large cacti. At the time, it was singing in a similar manner to H. palmeri, only very sweetly. I should consider them excellent songsters. They do not mock other birds and the song is unlike that of H. redivivus. A short time afterwards I saw two other Thrushes, one of which was lecontei. They were flitting through the brush and on shooting I got the wrong one, an H. palmeri. The latter was abundant in the locality and H. bendirei common."

66

In the Key to North American Birds" Dr. Coues reduced Leconte's Thrasher to a variety of H. redivivus, and this arrangement, also followed in his later works, has been generally

endorsed by such ornithologists as Ridgway, Henshaw, and others who have since had occasion to notice the bird. But although I dislike to differ from such an array of authority I cannot for a moment believe that lecontei should be associated with redivivus.

Even if we admit (as I am however by no means prepared to do) that the radical color-differences which exist between them are explainable by climatic modification, there still remain certain structural characters which cannot be similarly disposed of.

In the first place, the bill of lecontei is very much shorter, slenderer, and narrower than that of redivivus. The inferior convexity of the lower mandible is evenly rounded, whereas in redivivus it is laterally compressed, forming a quite sharp ridge or angle which is apparent to the eye as well as upon gently passing the finger along the bill below. A corresponding difference is also somewhat similarly shown by the upper mandibles; that of lecontei having a nearly perfect convexity beyond its basal third, while in redivivus the greater width of the bill gives the sides of the maxilla a decided slope or inclination, the lateral outlines of which are actually concave to the very tip.

Furthermore, in lecontei the cutting edges of the maxilla are decidedly recurved or rounded to within a short distance of the tip, and when the bill is closed the edges of the opposite mandibles nearly meet, those of the upper only slightly overlapping; but in redivivus these edges are not recurved beyond their basal fifth, being, on the contrary, nearly as sharp as a knife-blade, while they decidedly overlap the lower mandible.

Leconte's Thrasher otherwise differs in having the tail very much shorter and more rounded; the soles of the feet smoother; and the rictal bristles much more abbreviated and fewer in number.

On the whole I regard the affinities of this Thrasher as closer to H. curvirostris palmeri than to any other known form.

Despite the fact that palmeri is obsoletely spotted below, their coloring is much more nearly alike than is that of lecontei and redivivus. And in form and proportions, as well as in the general shape and character of the bill, they are strikingly similar. Indeed, were it not for the fact that the habitats of the two overlap it might be difficult to argue their specific distinctness. But the occurrence of lecontei at Phoenix, in actual company with palmeri, as observed by Mr. Stephens, effectually precludes any