Letters, Announcements, ^c. 487 



XXXIX. — Letters, Announcements, S^c. 



We have received the following letters, addressed to the 



Editors of ' The Ibis : '— 



233 Beacon Street, Bostom 

 July 11, 1878. 



Sirs,— It is some time since I wrote to you concerning 

 the explorations in the Rio-Grande region of South-western 

 Texas which have been kept up with considerable activity by 

 my young friend Dr. James C. Merrill, of the U.S. Army. 

 I have therefere all the more to communicate. 



Last spring Dr. Merrill found a Hawk's nest on the top 

 of a low yucca-tree not five feet from the ground. He shot 

 the parent, but it escaped, though desperately wounded, to 

 Avhere it could not be traced. From tlie size and general 

 appearance of the eggs and the position of the nest, so cha- 

 racteristic of Hi/potriorchis femor alls, I inferred it might be 

 this species ; but Dr. Merrill thought the bird, as he saw it, 

 was something diflFerent, perhaps Falco mexicanus. But the 

 present spring more nests have been taken, the parents 

 secured, and my conjectures have been verified. We are thus 

 assured that this species breeds within our limits, whei*e before 

 it has only been once taken as a chance visitor. 



A Vireo, shot by Dr. Merrill last fall, and sent to Dr. 

 Cones for identification, but which he failed to recognize as 

 other than one of our common species, has been identified by 

 Mr. Ridgway as a genuine Vireo fiavoviridis , an entirely new 

 species to our fauna, although included by Baird in the 

 Smithsonian Catalogue as among the possibilities. 



A Sturnella, obtained about the same time, Mr. Ridgway 

 decides to be a true S. mexicana, also new to our fauna. 



On the 10th of May last Dr. Merrill wrote me the follow- 

 ing interesting note about a Hawk, which now proves also 

 to be a new bird to our fauna : — " On the 2nd (of May) I 

 found two large Hawks' nests, also placed in yuccas, each 

 containing one egg measuring 2'35 by 1'91 and 2*35 by 

 1-85. This is the Hawk spoken of by Mr. Sennett in his 

 list as Archibuteo ferrugineus ; but I very much doubt this 



