AoS Ge/ieral Notes. [J"'y 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Phoenicopterus ruber as a South Carolina Bird. — In the A. O. U. 



' Check-List" the habitat of the Plamingo is given as "Atlantic coasts of 

 subtropical and tropical America; Florida Keys." This statement, exclud- 

 ing the Audubonian record, does not complete the written history of its 

 distribution so far as South Carolina is concerned. In the 'Monthly Re- 

 port of the South Carolina Department of Agriculture' (Circular No. 5, 

 new series, Aug. i, 1SS5, pp. 6, 7) Dr. G. E. Manigault, Curator of the 

 Museum of the College of Charleston, mentions the capture of a specimen 

 near Georgetown, in September, 1876. The bird was forwarded to the 

 museum, but not being well prepared had to be thrown away. It is not 

 improbable that the species was formerly more than an accidental visitant 

 in the State, as both Ramsay and Mills include it in their vernacular lists; 

 the former, in his 'History,' in 1809, and the latter in the ' Statistics of 

 South Carolina,' in 1S26, about the time of the disappearance of the 

 Paroquet from our local fauna. — Leverett M. Loomis, Chester, S. C. 



More News of Ardetta neoxena. — I have received a letter from Mr. R. 

 T. Stuart of Tampa, Floiida, who claims to have killed the type of tliis 

 species. He states that he remembers it perfectly, and that he shot it on 

 or near the Caloosahatchee River, near Lake Okeechobee, Florida. — 

 Charles B. Cory, Boston, Muss. 



Another Speciman of Ardea wuerdmanni ? — I have received from Mr. 

 R. T. Stuart an Ardeu which closely resembles the type of^. -Muentmainii 

 in the Smithsonian Institution. So many theories have been advanced 

 regarding this bird that it would be hardly advisable to hazard new guesses 

 as to the cause of the peculiar coloration. The specimen was killed in 

 Southwestern Florida, and a number of the Great White Heron {Ardea 

 occidentalism were killed in the same locality'. — Charles B. Cory, Bos- 

 ton, Mass. 



Early Arrival of a Rare Bird.— On the iSth of March, the presentyear, 

 a Black Rail (^Porza/ia Jamaicensis) was captured on low bottom land 

 near Neosho Falls, Kansas. This is much earlier than it has previously 

 been noticed. — N. S. Goss, Topcka, Kans. 



.ffigialitis meloda circumcincta on the Coast of South Carolina. — While 

 collecting waders on the tine sea beach of Sullivan's Island, nearCharleston, 

 May II, 1885, I shot a typical specimen of the Belted Piping Plover {y^. 

 m. circumcincta). It was a male in high nuptial plumage, with the black 

 pectoral collar broad and continuous. There can be little doubt that 

 this inland form will prove to be a regular if not uncommon fall and 

 spring visitor to the Atlantic coast of the Southern States. — William 

 Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



