220 General Notes. [^"K^ 



not more than five miles from the City Hall, and well within the city limits. 

 His description of the birds — Chicken-billed Ducks he called them — 

 precluded any doubt as to their identity, the white frontal shield plate of 

 the adult being a conspicuous identification mark. 



On the same day another gunner shot a Coot on this pond whose identity 

 was ascertained by the writer, thus confinning the observation of the 

 other gunner, and pro\dng conclusively that the Coot bred here. The fol- 

 lowing year, 1907, I hunted in vain for a Coot's nest in the marsh, in fact 

 did not see a bird nor hear of any being shot in it. 



This is the only record of the Coot breeding in the \'icimty of Philadelphia 

 known to me. — Richard F. Miller, Philadelphia, Pa. 



Ameflcan Woodcock Breeding at Saint Marys, Ga. — Although a friend 

 some few years ago told me that he had seen an American Woodcock 

 (Philohela yninor) with small young, about twenty-five miles from here on 

 the Satilla River, I have foimd the bird so rare, even during winter, that 

 I had about decided that he was mistaken. I was therefore both surprised 

 and pleased on the morning of March 9, 1908, to flush a bird from a set of 

 four eggs while riding through a thicket of bushes about three feet high in 

 a rather low place on the edge of a swamp. I was riding slowly at the time, 

 trying to identify a small bird, and my horse's feet were almost in the 

 nest before the bird quit it, rose above the bushes and settled down again 

 about twenty feet away. The nest was of leaves and a little pine straw, 

 and I found that incubation would have been over in a few days, but 

 managed to save the eggs. The nest was about four miles from Saint 

 Marys, and the Florida line, which I believe is the most southerly breeding 

 record for the bird. Have only seen one other bird this year. — Isaac 

 F. Arxow, Saint Marys, Ga. 



The Lesser Yellow-leg in Philadelphia County, Pa. — On May 13, 1901, 

 at Frankford, Philadelphia County, Pa., I saw a flock of six Lesser Yellow- 

 legs {Totanus flavipes) feeding in a shallow ditch bordering a large wood 

 and wading about, often belly-deep, in the water in quest of food. They 

 were watched for about ten minutes and were quite tame, allowing a close 

 approach. When flushed they took wing together, uttering their char- 

 acteristic shrill cries as they rose and circled aroimd, and then flew off 

 northward. 



The Summer Yellow-leg is only mentioned in Stone's ' Birds of Eastern 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey' as "Common transient on the coast and 

 less frequent on the larger streams" (p. 76). There are no reliable records 

 of its occurrence in the vicinity of Philadelphia, and Fowler in his 'Water 

 Birds of the Middle Delaware Valley' (Cassinia for 1903, p. 43) does not 

 mention the bird. When I contributed my notes to Mr. Fowler regarding 

 the Water Birds of Frankford and Vicinity I overlooked the observation of 

 this species, consequently it was not recorded in his excellent paper.— 

 Richard F. Miller, Harrowgate, Philadelphia, Pa. 



