78 



General Notes. I Jan- 



Walter Rothschild, in whose museum it now is, at Tring. No. ii be- 

 longed to Mr. G. F. Dippie, and was sold to Mr. Manl}' Hardy of Brewer, 

 Maine. 



Nos. 14 and 15 were sexed bv Mr. J. Maughan ; No. 14 is an adult male 

 in remarkably high plumage; the abdominal region and breast are largely 

 black, slightly tinged with chestnut, the left tibia has a few white feathers 

 on the inner side ; there is a clearly-marked black line running from the 

 gape almost to the back of the head, on both sides, but not reaching the 

 black of the lower crest-feathers, though it nearly divides the chestnut on 

 the sides of the head. 



No. 15 is a young male. It has a number of white feathers on the left 

 tibia, and a small patch on the abdomen ; the feathers of the head and the 

 secondary coverts have the downy neossoptiles attached. The bird is in 

 a more advanced stage than the young one belonging to Mr. Ames, taken 

 Aug. 24, 1894. The coloring of the feet was peculiar, and Mr. Manghan 

 assures me he has copied it correctly ; the green of the tarsus and toes is 

 curiously mottled and blotched with reddish brown ; No. 13 and my 

 young male (taken Aug. 17, 1894), were in this respect colored like 

 mature birds, but both are in a more advanced plumage, and it may prove 

 that the feet and legs of the nestlings are not colored as in the adult. 



While in England in the spring of 1896, I found that Dr. Bowdler 

 Sharpe, who was then preparing the manuscript of the Herodiones for the 

 ' Catalogue of Birds,' had not seen a specimen of Cory's Bittern, and con- 

 sidered it a color phase of Ardetta exilis. I had the adult female No. 

 1328 (Toronto, May 20, 1893) sent him for examination; this is the bird 

 whose description is given as an adult male on page 233, Vol. XXVI of 

 the ' Catalogue of Birds.' Dr. Sharpe also admitted Ardetta neoxena into 

 his list of the Ardeidse printed in the Bulletin of the British Ornitholo- 

 gists' Club, December, 1895. 



This bird is the one referred to by Mr. Chapman on page 13 of his 

 paper as having been examined by Mr. Brewster. I eventually sent it in 

 exchange to the museum at Liverpool, where it now is. — J. H. Fleming, 

 Toroyito, Canada. 



A Killdeer {^-Egialitis voci'fera) in the vicinity of Cambridge, Mass. — 

 On the 19th of October, 1901, we identified a Killdeer {^-Egialitts voct'fera) 

 in a large ploughed field in Belmont, Massachusetts. Although we had 

 no means of securing the specimen its identification is certain since we 

 flushed it three times at close range, getting good views of the rufous 

 tail-coverts. We also saw clearly the marks on the breast and heard the 

 call-note. 



According to Messrs. Howe and Allen's 'Birds of Massachusetts' there 

 are only two previous records in the vicinity of Cambridge, both of which 

 were in September. — Howard M. Turner, Rich.\rd S. Ersxis, Cam- 

 bridge, Alass. 



