It may be of further interest to restate the substance of a note submitted by Mr. A. W. Schorger to the January, 1918 issue of ‘The Auk’ in regard to the recent appearance of the European Widgeon in the vicinity of Madison. On April 22, 1917, a specimen was discovered by Mr. Schorger on the Hammersley Marsh in company with about thirty Baldpates and a few other ducks. It remained at least four days and was seen by me at close range on three occasions; the last being on the 26th. On the 28th Mr. George H. Jenkins observed a specimen, perhaps the same, among a flock of Baldpates on the Yahara Marshes ten miles distant.—WARNER TAYLOR, _Madison, Wisconsin_.
=A Late Record for= _Rallus elegans_ =for Maine.=—November 22, 1909, Mr. A. G. Dorr, Bucksport, Me., collected and sent me in the flesh a fine male specimen of the King Rail. It measured as follows: length, 16.30; wing, 6.75; tail, 2.10; tarsus, 2.34 and bill, 2.40 inches. It was marked above with brownish-black and olive-brown feather edging; light throat and rufous-cinnamon, breast and flanks fuscous, distinctly barred with white. It was in good physical condition and apparently well able to join the majority of its species in the South had it so chosen.
Mr. Dorr considered this a rare bird for Maine, especially so in the fall. There are a number of fall and winter records for Massachusetts and Maine, but I consider the occurrence sufficiently unusual to be worth recording.—C. L. PHILLIPS, _Taunton, Mass._
=The Proper Generic Name of the Ruff.=—The generic name now used for the European Ruff is _Machetes_ Cuvier (Regne Animal, I, 1817, p. 490; type by monotypy, _Tringa pugnax_ Linnæus). This name has been preferred over _Pavoncella_ Leach (Syst. Cat. Indig. Mamm. and Birds Brit. Mus., 1816, p. 29), because the latter was supposed to be a nomen nudum. It was introduced by Leach, however, in combination with the specific term _pugnax_, which is, of course, readily identifiable and of undoubted application to the Ruff. The name is on exactly the same basis as _Spatula_ Boie (Isis, X, 1822, col. 564) and several other names proposed by him and by other authors at various times. All these names have hitherto been accepted without question as entirely warranted by both the International and A. O. U. Codes of Nomenclature; and there is no more reason for rejecting _Pavoncella_ than any of the other names.