F<?z/«^. —Similar  to  adult,  but  little  or  no  chestnut  color  on
wing  coverts.  Lender  parts,  paler,  and  the  upper  tail  coverts
margined  with  brown.
Downy  Young. — A  brown  band  from  the  ears  to  the  hind
neck,  and  one  down  the  back  of  the  neck.  Occiput  traversed  by
a  white  band,  and  one  also  across  the  wing.  Upper  parts,  gray-
ish brown;  under  parts,  white.
RUDDY   SHELDRAKE.
I  F  it  was  stretching  a  point  to  admit  the  Smew  among
North  American  birds,  when  two  females,  it  was
claimed,  had  been  taken  in  the  flesh  within  our
boundaries,  what  is  to  be  said  of  this  species'
application  for  membership  in  our  avi-fauna,  based
as  it  is  upon  two  statements,  one,  that  Dr.  Yslu-
hoffen,  a  member  of  an  expedition  to  West  Green-
land sent  by  the  Geographical  Society  of  Berlin,
reported  that  he  saw  a  skin  of  this  species  in  a
collection  of  birds  at  Augpalartok  in  the  District  of
Uppernavik,  that  was  collected  in  that  vicinity  in  1892;
and  the  other  that,  in  1895,  Wenge  of  Copenhagen  re-
ports another  specimen  from  North  Greenland?  These
are  the  solitary  instances  of  this  bird's  occurrence  any-
where within  what  may  be  termed  the  limits  of  North
America,  which  have  been  recorded.  Doubtless  Old-
World  species  that  breed  in  very  high  latitudes  some-
times on  the  return  journey  go  slightly  astray  from  their
regular  course,  and  touch,  possibly  for  a  few  brief  mo-
ments, on  some  parts  of  boreal  North  America,  and  many
more  species  probably  do  this  than  we  shall  ever  know,
but  it  is  only  to  record  an  historical  fact  that  any  notice
of  these  waifs  and  strays  is  taken  at  all,  and  they  can  in
no  way  be  considered  as  American  birds.
