142 BULLETIN OF THE 



ARDEID-ffi. 



57. Butorides virescens. Occasional. 



58. Nyctiardea grisea, var. neevia. A single specimen was seen flying 

 along Big Creek. 



RALLIDjE. 



59. Fulica americana. A single specimen was shot June 8th. Said, 

 however, to be common. 



ANATID.2E. 



60. Aix sponsa. Not common. 



61. Querquedula discors. More or less frequent throughout the 

 summer. 



III. List of Birds observed in Northwestern Kansas, December 25, 

 1871, to January 12, 1872 ; with Annotations. 



The following list is based on observations covering a period of 

 nearly three weeks, made during a wagon journey of over two hundred 

 and fifty miles. The area traversed was nearly fifty miles square, 

 extending westward from Park's Fort Station, on the Kansas Pacific 

 Railway, to Grinnell, and from the Smoky River on the south to the 

 head-waters of the Solomon on the north. The opportunity was hence 

 unusually favorable for observing the birds that inhabit the Plains in 

 winter. 



The locality does not differ essentially from the country about Fort 

 Hays, except in the greater scarcity of timber, which is limited to a 

 few scanty clumps of bushes and scattered trees on the Saline and 

 Solomon Forks, opposite Coyote Station. The small number of species 

 observed under such favorable circumstances indicates the poverty of 

 the winter avian fauna of the Plains. The only species really numerous 

 were Eremophila alpestris, which was met with everywhere, and roving 

 locks of two species of Plectrophanes (P. nivalis and P. Maccownii). 

 As our halts near the timber were necessarily short, a longer stay at 

 hese points might have added a few other species to the list of those 

 observed. 



1. Parus atricapillus. A few were seen in the shrubs along the 

 streams. 



