30 KANSAS Academy of science. 



low, wet land, about five miles southeast of Lawrence. The specimen is mounted, 

 and in the fine collection under his charge. It is the first bird, to my knowledge, 

 captured or seen in the State. But this is not strange, as the birds inhabit the 

 marshy grounds, and at the least alarm run, skulk and hide in the reeds or grass. 

 and it is next to impossible to force them to take wing. Therefore seldom seen, 

 even where known to be common. I enter the bird as summer resident, because 

 they have been found both north and south of us, and are known to breed within 

 their geographical range. Nest on the ground. The following description is from 

 vol. I, North American Water Birds: "Its nest resembles the ordinary loosely-con- 

 structed one of this family. . . . Three eggs in the Smithsonian collection, 

 (No. 7,057,) from Winnebago, in northern Illinois, measure respectively 1.08 inches 

 by .85; 1.12 by .82; 1.12 by .80. They are of oval shape, one end slightly more 

 tapering than the other. Their ground color is a very deep buff, and one set of 

 markings, which are almost entirely confined to the larger end, consist of blotches 

 of pale, diluted purplish brown; these are overlain by a dense sprinkling of fine dot- 

 tings of rusty brown." [Note. — October 1st, Professor Dyche captured on the 

 Wakarusa bottom lands, two and a half miles south of Lawrence, another of the 

 little birds, a female, and he thinks a young bird. The lucky finds were both caught 

 by his dog.] 



Gallinula galeata. B. 560. R. 679. C, 684. Florida Gallinule. Prof. F. H. 

 Snow writes me, under date of October 20th, 1885, that since the publication of his 

 •'Birds of Kansas," in 1875, he has personally obtained in the State two specimens 

 of Gallinula galeata. The first was captured by himself, June 14th, 1878, on the 

 Hackberry, in Gove county; the second by a friend in the vicinity of Lawrence. 

 The bird was entered in his catalogue on the authority of Professor Baird, and at the 

 time of the publication of iny catalogue in 1883 they were known to breed both 

 north and south of the State, and therefore safe to enter as a Kansas bird. But my 

 list only embraced the birds that came under my own observation, and that of others 

 as reported to me. From the fact that the birds nest within their geographical range, 

 and its capture so late in June, I now enter it as a rare summer resident. I have 

 found the birds nesting in Wisconsin as early as the middle of May. Nest in rushes 

 and reeds growing in shallow water or on swampy lands, build on the tops of old 

 broken-down stalks, and the nests are composed of the same material, weeds and 

 grasses; also the leaves of the cat-tail flag, when growing in the vicinity; a circular 

 structure, and in some cases quite deep and bulky. Eggs usually eight to ten, 1.78x1.24; 

 buff -white, thinly spotted and splashed with varying shades of reddish-brown: in 

 form oval. One set of thirteen collected May 25th, 1878, on a bog in Pewaukee lake, 

 Wisconsin, measured as follows: 1.63x1.18, 1.84x1.27, 1.67x1.18, 1.60x1.16, 1.67x1.18, 

 1.78x1.30, 1.81x1.29, 1.79x1.29, 1.88x1.27, 1.70x1.16, 1.80x1.30, 1.75x1.18, 1.80x1.28. 



Anas fulviqula. B. . R. 603. C. 709. Florida Dusky Duck. Migratory; 



rare. Arrive about the middle of March. Captured a female at Neosho Falls, March 

 11th, 1876. I have since shot one, and observed two others in the State. The birds 

 were entered in first catalogue as A. obsciira. 



Taohypetes aquila. B. 619. R. 639. C. 761. Man-of-War Bird. Frigate 

 Pelican. A straggler. Mr. Frank Lewis, of Downs, Kansas, reports to me the cap- 

 ture of the bird on the North Fork of the Solomon river, in Osborne county, August 

 16, 1880. It was killed with a stone while sitting on a tree. The specimen has 

 passed out of his hands, but he sends me a photograph of the bird, taken after it 

 was mounted, which removes all previous doubts as to its identification. The birds 

 are strictly maritime, and largely parasitical in habits. Their home is on the coast 

 of tropical and sub-tropical America. They are known to be great wanderers along 



