112 The Wilson IJilletix — No. 105 



KEN'l SORY NOTES ON THE LIST OF THE BIRDS 

 OF NEBRASKA. 



BY MYROX H. SWENK. 



In November, 1014, the writer presented a list of tlie na- 

 tive birds known to occur or to have occurred within the 

 present limits of the state of Nebraska, and this list was 

 ]>ublislied in the "Nebraska Blue Book" for lOl."), early in 

 that year. In this list 418 species and subspecies were re- 

 corded for the state. During- the four years since the com- 

 pilation of this list, considerable held work has been car- 

 ried on by several of the mend)ers of the Nebraska Orni- 

 thologists' T'nion, and at the same time many of the older 

 records have been critically reviewed. As a result of these 

 activities, it now seems necessary to add fifteen birds to 

 the 1014 list and to drop six birds from it, while the breed- 

 ing of four birds within the state which were not or not 

 definitely classified as breeders in 1014 has been estab- 

 lished. The data on which these changes rest is briefly in- 

 cluded in the following notes : 



Western Grebe (Aechmophorus occidentalis (Lawrence)). — On 

 June 3, 1916, Mr. Cyrus Black found three nests of this grebe at 

 Island Lake, north of Oshkosh, Garden County, Nebhaska. one con- 

 taining three fresh eggs, one four nearly fresh eggs, and one five 

 eggs nearly ready to hatch, with a newly hatched bird near by. The 

 male parent and the young bird, together with the nest with four 

 eggs, were collected and are now in Mr. Black's collection. The 

 next year, 1917, Mr. Black and Mr. A. M. Brooking took a female 

 western grebe and five sets of fresh eggs, with nests, in a small 

 lake in Garden County, on June 19. These are the first records 

 of the breeding of this bird in the state. 



Black-throated Loon {Govia arctica (Linnaeus)). — All of the sev- 

 eral statements concerning the occurrence of the black-throated 

 loon in Nebraska depend back upon the record published in 1904 

 (Birds of Nebraska, p. 17) of a specimen taken at Curtis, Frontier 

 County, and now in the Rees Heaton collection at that place. At the 

 request of the Biological Survey this specimen was subjected to 

 a careful study. It is in immature plumage and resembles in size 

 and the broad edgings of the back feathers immature specimens 

 of the black-throated loon, but Dr. H. C. Oberholser pronounced 



