1915 J General Notes. 99 



abundant water-fowl such as King, Virginia and Sora Rails, Coots, Florida 

 Gallinules, and Least Bittern, which were either stepping out of the dark 

 recesses of the clumps of cat-tail and other swamp vegetation to feed along 

 the edge of the open places, or swimming in patches of open water further 

 out, or at least giving vent to their various queer notes, in which they were 

 ably seconded by multitudinous Redwings and Prairie Marsh Wrens 

 (Telmatodytes p. iliacus), I was startled by a bird about the size of a Least 

 Bittern flying out of some Scirpus lacustris and heading toward a thicket 

 of button-bush, willow, etc., at the edge of which it alighted and disappeared. 

 The bird in coloration looked unlike anything I had ever seen. The shape, 

 size and flight all fitted the Least Bittern, but it seemed to be all black or 

 blackish with the exception of brown crescent on the wing next to the 

 primaries. Thinking the light or my eyes were deceiving me, I put it 

 down as a Least Bittern. Still having some doubts, I put out in a boat 

 which was with some difficulty poled through the dense vegetation by a 

 friend. When nearing the bushes above mentioned the dark bird got up 

 and flew a distance back of the boat, again alighting in the rushes. My 

 friend, anxious to have at least one shot for his hard work of pushing the 

 boat, took my 44 caliber shot-gun, fired — and the bird stayed there. 

 Poling on as quickly as possible, which was still slow enough, I was sur- 

 prised and elated to find the bird to be an Ixobrychus moxenus. On 

 dissection it proved to be a female, the largest egg would have been ready 

 for extrusion in a few days or a week; the stomach contained two sunfish, 

 each about three inches long. The following is a description of the skin 

 now in my collection. Length, from tip of bill to end of tail, llf inches, 

 to tip of longest toe, 14^ inches, tarsus 1^ inches, bill, l^f inches. Color, 

 back, tail and broad line from crown along back of neck, where the ends of 

 the feathers on sides of neck form it, greenish-brownish-black; wing coverts 

 dark purplish-chestnut; primaries, dark slaty, with a trace of the flour-like 

 bloom characteristic of the herons; cheeks, throat and neck chestnut, the 

 fluffy tuft of feathers streaming over the bend of the wings, blackish; belly 

 dark-purplish brown, quite different from the neck, in middle of abdomen 

 some white feathers, forming an irregular white patch; sides gradually 

 darkening into blackish; culmen of bill blackish shading to dark brownish 

 horn color on sides and on lower mandible, different from the straw color 

 in /. exilis; tarsi and feet also blackish to brown. From this it is apparent 

 that the coloring of neoxenus is quite different from that of exilis, only 

 some of the dark brown on the back of the latter being identical with the 

 same colored areas on the wing of the former, as well as the greenish-black 



on the crown. — C. W. G. Eifrig, River Forest, III. 



\ 



Willow Ptarmigan in Minnesota. — A specimen of the Willow Ptar- 

 migan (Lagopus lagopus lagopus) was shot on April 20, 1914, at Sandy 

 Island Lake of the Woods, Minnesota. Sandy Island is located in Section 

 21, Township 163, Range 36, of Warroad. This seems to be the first authen- 

 tic record of the species in the state. The specimen is owned by Mr. 



