1916 J General N^otes. ■ 433 



while the lores are plain buff and the chin itself is paler in all cases. The 

 pilium of the Mottled Ducks from Louisiana is more solid black and less 

 streaked black than is the case with the Florida birds; if anj'thing it is 

 darker than in the Texas birds. On the upper surface of the Louisiana 

 series and the Texas series the light edges of all the feathers (back, scapu- 

 lars, rump and tail) are darker and richer brown, but especially is this so 

 in the Louisiana birds. The speculum character noticed by Sennett does 

 not seem to me to hold good. It was said to be more green and less 

 purple in fulvigula than in maculosa. 



To sum up, I should say that the only character which seems important 

 in distinguishing A.f. maculosa and A. f. fulvigula, aside from the generally 

 darker tone of the former, is the coarser and more consistently striped 

 head and neck of A. maculosa. In all cases the feathers bordering the 

 sides of the culmen, the lores, are dotted with black in maculosa and plain 

 buff in fulvigula. I believe the richer and more ruddy ground color of the 

 head and neck of A.f. maculosa from Louisiana is partly due to the color 

 of the water and mud in the Vermilion Bay region. These Vermilion 

 Bay ducks are certainly more highly colored than ducks from the Browns- 

 ville' region of Texas. The form A. fulvigula maculosa, therefore, will 

 probablj^ remain as a valid race. — J. C. Phillips, Wenham, Mass. 



An Overlooked Specimen of the Trumpeter Swan. — When Mr. 

 H. K. Coale was compiling the data on the Trumpeter Swan (Olor buc- 

 cinator) for his paper in ' The Auk,' 1915, p. 82, I informed him that there 

 were no specimens in the collection of the Philadelphia Academy. I re- 

 called an old mounted specimen which was on exhibition when I first 

 became connected with the museum but as no trace of it could be found I 

 presumed that it had been wrongly identified. Recently, however, it has 

 come to light having been boxed up with some other unmounted specimens. 

 It is a typical adult specimen but unfortunatelj' without data. The 

 chances are, however, that it came from Delaware or Chesapeake Bays, 

 as it bears evidence of having been mounted at the Academy. — Witmer 

 Stone, Acad. Nat. Sci., Philadelphia. 



Egrets {Herodias egretta) in Van Cortland Park, New York City. 



— Three individuals arrived on July 16 and have taken up their constant 

 abode in the pond at Broadway and 242nd Street for the past week. They 

 are attracting attention and admiration. 



Great numbers of Kingfishers and Little Green Herons are also sharing 

 the good fishing. — S. H. Chubb, American Museum Nat. Hist., N. Y. 

 City. 



The Black Rail {Creciscus jamaicensis) at Chicago, 111.^ A fine 

 male of this species was shot May 80, 1916, while collecting at Hyde Lake, 

 South Chicago, 111. The skin is in the Harris Extension collection. The 

 specimen was first flushed in a small cattail growth, and flew rather stronglj' 



