General Noiei. 



409 



The Snowy Plover on the Salt Plains of the Indian Territory and 

 Kansas. — On the iSth of June. 18S6, I found ^-JlgialitL^ tiivosa hrtinWui:^ on 

 the .salt plains along the Cimarron Ri\er, in the Indian Territory, the 

 northern limits of whicli extend across the line into southwestern Co- 

 manche County, Kansas. I shot two of the hirds within the State limits, 

 at the edge of the phiins, and saw one more, a female, with two voung 

 birds nearly half grown, which I had not the heart to disturb. Just 

 south of the line, in the Indian Territory, I saw several of the birds, and 

 started one from a nest — a depression marked out in the sand, with no 

 lining, and nothing near to shelter or hide it from \iew. The nest con- 

 tained three eggs nearly ready to hatch. Their dimensions are 120 X 90, 

 120 X S9, 122 X 89; color, pale olive drab (approacliing a light clay color 

 with a greenish tint), rather evenly and thickly marked with irregularlv- 

 bhaped, ragged-edged splashes and dots of dark or blackish brown. The 

 measurements of the three birds shot, which on dissection proved to be 

 lemales, are as follows : 



iristiark brown ; hill and claws black; legs and feet bluish ash. The birds 

 are lighter in color, and the markings about the head not quite so distinct, 

 as ill the pair in ni_\- collection shot at San Diego. Caliiornia, in Novem- 

 ber. iSSi. 1 llierefore send two ol' the skins l"or examination, as I ha\e 

 nf)t any specimens in the breeding plumage from the Pacific coast. 



When I started J'or the salt plains it was my intention to spend several 

 days and carefully look up its bird life ; hut a business matter called me 

 home, and as it was important that I should reach the stage line that e\en- 

 ing, I only liad time for a sf.ort and hurried ride over a very small portion 

 of the grounds. From the numbei- f)f these Plovers seen, however, I think 

 it safe to enter them as quite a common summer resident. — N. S. G(.>ss, 

 Toficka. Kansas. 



[The two birds sent by Col. (joss are very much lighter in color than 

 California specimens taken in the breeding season, but agree exactly with 

 a siK'cimen in Mr. Sennett's cf)llection taken at Coi'pus Christi, Texas, 

 Ma\' 24. 1SS2. These thrcL- examples dilTei" markedh- tV(mi Pacihc Coast 

 specimens, they showing onh- the merest trace of the fulvous tinge on the 

 head, while the black markings are mucli paler, and the upper plumage 

 generally presents a bleached or washed-out appearance. Doubtless addi- 

 tional material will show that the biicis ot' the Plains — from Texas north- 

 ward to Kansas — are well entitled to subsjiecific separation. — J. A. 

 Allkn.] 



Naturalization of the European Goldfinch in New York City and 

 Vicinity. — I am informed \i\- Mr. W'. A. Conklin, of the Central Park Me- 

 nagerie, New \'orkCity. that the European Goldfinch {Ca rdnr/is e/ro'iins) 



