° ' 1920 J General Notes. Zot 



nification under a dissecting microscope. Another bird that I have seen 

 had the caeca represented by small, slightly thickened ridges that would 

 have been overlooked without careful search. 



Several notes on the caeca of the American Anhinga have appeared in 

 print previously. Garrod 1 remarks that there was one caecum present, 

 as in herons, in specimens that he dissected. In a second communica- 

 tion 2 he confirms his previous observation, stating that in this species he 

 found no trace of a second caecum. Forbes 3 notes that normally he found 

 one caecum but that in one individual there was in addition to a single 

 caecum of the ordinary size a much more rudimentary one developed on 

 the other side of the intestine. While in another paper 4 he says that "it 

 is not unusual ... in a group of birds in which the caeca are of 

 small size, and probably of no physiological importance, to find specimens 

 or species with the normal number of caeca reduced by one. I may give 

 as instances . . . Plotus anhinga amongst the Steganopodes. " Bed- 

 dard s records one caecum in some specimens of the Anhinga while in others 

 he notes that there were two. Mitchell 8 found only one vestigial caecum 

 in a bird that he examined. 



From this it would appear that as Forbes has supposed the intestinal 

 caeca in this species are not functional; and that they are on the road to 

 disappearance. One caecum often seems to be larger than the other, while 

 the second may be vestigial. It is my belief, from my own observations, 

 that some indication of this second one may be found if the gut is exam- 

 ined while fresh or after preservation in some fluid that causes rapid 

 hardening. It would seem that at times this rudiment may be imper- 

 ceptible in specimens dissected from alcohol or that it may be overlooked 

 without minute search for it. It is possible that caeca are more prominent 

 in young birds and that one or both of them may decrease in size with 

 age. — Alexander Wetmore, Biological Survey, Washington, D. C. 



On the Nesting of the Black Duck in Ohio. — In regard to the 

 article in the last number of 'The Auk' on this subject by Mr. E. A. 

 Doolittle, I would like to state that the species formerly nested quite 

 frequently at the Grand Reservoir here in western Ohio, especially at two 

 places, where the Big and Little Chickasaw creeks empty into the Reser- 

 voir. Mr. Doolittle quotes my article in 'The Auk', January, 1910, but 

 evidently overlooked my record for the recent nesting of this duck in 

 the spring of 1911, as recorded in 'The Wilson Bulletin,' December, 1912, 

 page 198, which is a good and reliable record. Writers on Ohio birds 



1 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1876, p. 344. 



2 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1878, p. 681. 



3 Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1882, p. 210. 



* Voy. of Challenger, Zool., Vol. IV, Pt. XI, 1882, p. 22. 



6 Structure and Classification of Birds, 1898, p. 403. 



' Trans. Linn. Soc. (London), Zool., Ser. 2, Vol. VIII, p. 192. 



