18S6.J Goss, Additions to the Catalogue of Kansas Birds. 113 



give in advance of the new work I am preparing on Kansas 

 birds, the publication of which is delayed in order to enable me 

 to adopt the classification and nomenclature of the new A. O. U. 

 Check-List now in press. As some of these additions have been 

 already recorded in 'The Ank,' it is thought sufficient in this 

 connection to merely refer to the place of record. 



1. Tachypetes aquila. Man-of- War Bird. — -A straggler. Mr. Frank 

 Lewis, of Downs. Kansas, reports to me the capture of this bird on the 

 North Fork of" the Solomon River, Osborne County, August i6, iSSo. 

 It was killed with a stone while sitting on a tree. The specimen has 

 passed out of his hands; but he sends me a photograph of the bird, taken 

 after it was mounted, which removes all doubts as to its identification. 

 The biixls are strictly- maritime, and largely parasitical in habits. Their 

 home is on the coast of tropical and sub-tropical America. They are 

 known to be great wanderers along the sea-board ; but this is, I think, 

 the first record of its being found away from the coast, and to straggle so 

 far inland it must surely have been crazed or bewildered. 



2. Anas fulvigula. Florida Duck. — Migratory ; rare. Arrives about 

 the middle of March. I captured a female at Neosho Falls, March n, 

 1876. I have shot one since, and observed two others in the State. The 

 birds were entered in my first Catalogue as A. obscura. 



3. Porzana noveboracensis. Little Yellow Rail. — Summer resi- 

 dent. Rare. Prof. L. L. Djxhe, Curator of Birds and Mammals, State 

 University, writes me that April 18, 18S5, he captured one of the birds 

 (a female) on low, wet land, about five miles southeast of Lawrence. 

 The specimen is mounted, and in the fine collection under his charge. It 

 is the first bird, to my knowledge, captured or seen in the State. But 

 this is not strange, as the birds inhabit the marshy grounds, and at the 

 least alarm, run, skulk, and hide in the reeds or grass, and it is next to 

 impossible to force them to take wing. Therefore it is seldom seen, even 

 where known to be common. I enter the bird as a summer resident, be- 

 cause it has been found both north and south of us, and is known to 

 breed within this geographical range. Nests on the ground. 



October i, Professor Dyche captured on the Wakarusa bottom lands, two 

 and a half miles south of Lawrence, another of the little birds, a female, 

 and he thinks a young bird. The lucky finds were both caught by his 

 dog. 



4. Gallinula galeata. Florida Gallinule. — Prof. F. H. Snow writes 

 me, under date of October 20, 1885, that since the publication of his 

 'Birds of Kansas.' in 1875, he has personally obtained in the State two 

 specimens of Gallinula galeata. The first was captured by himself, June 

 14, 1878, on the Hackberry, in Gove county. The second, by a friend in 

 the vicinity of Lawrence. The bird was entered in his Catalogue on the 

 authority of Professor Baird, and at the time of the publication of my 

 Catalogue, in 18S3, they were known to breed both north and south of 

 the State, and it was therefore safe to enter it as a Kansas bii-d. But mv 



