Harris—Birds of the Kansas City Region. 217 
covered, near the mouth of Platte River, a finch new to him 
which he named Fringilla comata. He minutely described this 
bird (the Mourning Finch of Nuttall) in the second volume of 
his journal published in 1841. 
Audubon, who reached this point on May 2, 1843, on his 
journey up the Missouri River to Fort Union, speaks in his 
journal of the abundance of Wild Turkeys and Paroquets, and 
gives a list of 49 species of birds observed or collected. This 
list contains such locally extinct or rare birds as Ruffed Grouse, 
Duck Hawk, Swan, Bald Eagle (two nests). In the bottom 
land on the Missouri side, near Leavenworth, his party took 
specimens of the sparrow which he named after his friend 
Edward Harris, not knowing of the discovery of this bird in 
1834 by Nuttall. At this point was discovered a vireo, new to 
science, which Audubon named after another member of the 
party—J. G. Bell. 
On the return, in 1843, four Paroquets and two Ruffed 
Grouse were killed in the vicinity of St. Joseph, and near Leav- 
enworth great flocks of migrating Geese and Pelicans were 
seen on October 10th. Three days later a great number of 
Sandhill Cranes were seen. 
Edward Harris, who accompanied Audubon, and for whom 
the supposedly new finch was named, published a list of 118 
species seen between Fort Leavenworth and Fort Union (5th 
Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, for 1850). 
Of the birds noted by Dr. P. R. Hoy in this vicinity in 1854, 
at least one species, the Purple Sandpiper, has not since been 
observed (19th Annual Report Smithsonian Institution, 1864). 
Dr. J. A. Allen collected a series of specimens in May, 1871, 
in the bottoms of Platte County, and took several species of 
water-birds about a lagoon, probably Horseshoe Lake. (Bull. 
Museum Comparative Zool., 1872). 
W. E. D. Scott, who was employed at the Normal School of 
Warrensburg, Johnson County, during the spring of 1874, 
published a list of 147 species observed and collected in that 
vicinity (Nuttall Bulletin, Vol. 4, 1879). 
A few scattered field notes and short articles on rare and 
unexpected species, by local observers, have from time to time 
appeared in the bird journals. No previous attempt has been 
