THE OOLOGIST 



13 



749. Ruby Crowned Kinglet. Rare 

 Migrant. 



Tol. Blue Gray Gnatcatcher. Summer 

 resident. 



755. Wood Thrush. Summer resi- 

 dent. 



761. Robin. Common resident. 



766 Bluebird. Common summer resi- 

 dent. 



731. Tufted Titmouse. Resident. 



316. Mourning Dove. Resident. 

 Snow Bunting. Resident. 

 American Three-toed Wood- 

 pecker. 



J. D. Black, 

 Winslow, Arkansas. 



MISCELLANEOUS NOTES 



In looking over the December issue 

 I noted in Mr. Graham's "Texas Notes 

 for 1921," a description of some curi- 

 ous animals that he encountered while 

 collecting along the Mexican border. 

 From his description, although the 

 name of the animal is not given, I 

 judge that he refers to the nine-band- 

 ed armidillo, of frequent occurrence in 

 southern Texas. It is perhaps much 

 more common south of the Rio Grande. 

 I have never seen the animal in its 

 native habitat, but have seen living 

 specimens at the Bronx Zoo, New York 

 City, and mounted specimens in sev- 

 eral of the larger museums of Amer- 

 ica.. The armidillo is the United 

 States' most primitive placental mam- 

 mal. Only the opossum ranks lower in 

 the scale of mammal life. The armi- 

 dillo belongs to the order of Edentates, 

 and through it is related to the lazy 

 tree sloths and the anteaters of Soutli 

 and Central America, and to the giant 

 ground sloths of prehistoric times. 



The case of the naming of the 

 horned frogs or toads illustrates an in- 

 teresting fact in popular nomenclature. 

 Whereas we call them frogs or toads, 

 we should call them lizards — although 

 few people do — because they are truly 

 lizards and belong to the class of rep- 



tiles. This fact can be easily veri- 

 fied by examining the skin which is 

 not continuous as in the amphibians 

 but is covered with true reptilian 

 scales, just as in the case of snakes 

 and turtles. 



Such facts are, I realize, only of in 

 cidental interest to ornithologists, 

 but as scientific facts are certainly 

 worth knowing But to get closer to 

 ornithology. I regret that 1 have not 

 my notes at hand at the time of this 

 writing, but I have a few interesting 

 winter records to record from memory. 

 My field trips during the past six 

 months have been few and far be- 

 tween, and little of value can be re- 

 corded. 



On December 13 last, I started out 

 late in the afternoon on a collecting 

 trip. It was a chilly day, the sun was 

 hidden by a gray sky, and few birds 

 were stirring. Only Juncos, tret and 

 song Sparrows seemed to be stirring 

 and I had walked several miles be- 

 fore seeing any of these. I did not 

 want any of these, so finally struck 

 the railroad right-of-way and started 

 for town, ready to give up the idea or 

 getting any birds that day. Hardly 

 had I ^gone a hundred yards when a 

 large bird flew up from a marshy 

 meadow ahead and circled around me, 

 settling in a creek-bed about a quarter 

 mile distant. I thought it was an 

 American Bittern but could hardly be- 

 lieve that one would stay so late in 

 central Missouri. We had already 

 had one cold spell and an accompan- 

 ing snow storm, and for a bird accus- 

 tomed to wintering in Guatemala, I 

 thought it had long ago been time to 

 move. I watched closely to see where • 

 the bird alighted, then slowly began 

 stalking it. I wanted to get within 

 good shooting distance before it flew 

 up. Finally I flushed it from a little 

 patch of marsh grass and dropped it 

 at a shot. It proved to be what I had 



