o Goss, Additions to the Birds of Kansas. 



[January 



Podilymbus podiceps ( Linn. ) . Pied-billed Grebe.— June 

 8, 18S6, I found these birds breeding in a pond in Meade County. 

 I shot a young bird about two-thirds grown and saw several others, 

 and caught a glimpse, in the rushes, of an old bird followed by 

 little chicks, not more than a day or two old. 



Phalaropus tricolor ( Vieill.). Wilson's Phalarope.— June 

 S, 1SS6, I found three pairs of these birds breeding on marshy 

 ground, bordering a slough or pond of Crooked Creek, Meade 

 County, and I therefore enter the species as an occasional summer 

 resident in Western Kansas ; quite common throughout the State 

 during migration. Nest on the ground, usually on hummocks, quite 

 deeply excavated, and lined with leaves from the old dead grasses ; 

 eggs, three or four — usually four ; ground color, cream to ashy 

 drab, rather thickly but irregularly blotched with varying shades 

 of brown to black. The female is larger and brighter in color 

 than the male, but from limited observations of the birds lam led 

 to think certain writers are mistaken in reporting that the females 

 arrive first and do all the courting, but leave the work of nest- 

 making, incubation, and the rearing of the young to the males. I 

 have never been so fortunate as to find either of the birds upon the 

 nest ; but certainly, both appear equally watchful and solicitous, 

 circling around and croaking as one approaches their nests, or 

 near their young (grayish little fellows that leave the nest as soon 

 as hatched). The earliest arrival noticed in the State was at 

 Neosho Falls, April 29, 1S79. In this flock, as in all others seen 

 at or about the time of their arrival, the sexes appeared to be 

 about equally divided, and I am inclined to think further examin- 

 ation will prove the birds to be joint workers in the hatching and 

 rearing of their young. With a view to removing all doubts, I 

 trust all naturalists who are so fortunate as to be upon their breed- 

 ing grounds during the breeding season will carefully note and 

 report their observations. 



/Egialitis nivosa (Cass.). Snowy Plover.— Summer res- 

 ident on the salt plains along the Cimarron River, in the Indian 

 Territory, the northern limits of which extend across the line 

 into southwestern Comanche County, Kansas. Quite common ; 

 arrives about the first of May ; begins laying the last of May. 

 Nest, a depression worked out in the sand; eggs, three, 1.20X 

 .90, pale olive drab, approaching a light clay color, with a green- 

 ish tint, rather evenly and thickly marked with irregularly-shaped 



