^°^i^lO^"] General Notes. 75 



GENERAL NOTES. 



The Brown Pelican in Illinois. — The writer is indebted to his friend 

 and correspondent, Hon. R. M. Barnes of Lacon, Marshall County, 111., 

 for the facts concerning the following and to whom credit is due for giving 

 us the first authentic record ■ for the State, our evidence of this bird's 

 occurrence within our borders having rested solely heretofore on the 

 rather insufficient data furnished by C. K. Worthen of Warsaw (see Ridg- 

 way in Bull. Nutt. Ornith. Club, Vol. V, 1880, p. 31), who reported having 

 seen one at Lima Lakes, ten miles below that place, in October, 1873. 



He informs me that on May 27, 1903, a specimen of Pelecamis fuscus 

 was killed off of one of the bridge-protection piers in the Illinois River 

 at Lacon, by a local hunter or fisherman of the town, and brought to him 

 for identification. (See Blatchley in ' The Auk,' 1907, Vol. XXIV, p. 337, 

 for further evidence of the wandering of this maritime species far inland.) — 

 Benj. T. Gault, Glen Elhjn, III. 



A New Bird for Illinois. — While passing through Burlington, Iowa, 

 recently, I saw a mounted Man-o'-war-bird (Fregata aquila) in a store win- 

 dow. Upon inquiry I was told that the bird was killed in the spring of 

 1904. It was first noticed by some hunters as it flew along the Illinois 

 shore of the Mississippi, who shot at it, when it turned and flew across the 

 river into the heart of the city of Burlington where it struck an electric 

 light wire and fell into the street. The next day it died and the man who 

 picked it up had it mounted and exhibited in his window. This is the first 

 record for Illinois and also for Iowa, as far as I know. — Henry K. Coale, 

 Highland Park, III. 



The Black Duck Summering near Philadelphia. — We find the Black 

 Duck {Anas rubripes) given in Stone's 'Birds of Eastern Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey,' in the list of birds found within 10 miles of Philadelphia 

 (page 31), as a " species which occurs occasionally in winter, but are mainly 

 transients"; yet th re are subsequent records enough of its occurrence in 

 summer on the Delaware River and its tributaries to enable us to regard 

 it as a probable rare breeder, although no nests have been actually found. 



The following records constitute all my knowledge of its occurrence in 

 summer in this region, and they are all authentic as far as observation goes. 

 Moreover, it is an impossibility for all of these birds to have been barren or 

 wounded individuals, and surely none were belated transients or stragglers. 



I have two summer records: on June 17, 1899, one was flushed on the 

 Pensauken Creek at West Palmyra, N. J., and two were seen on May 27, 

 1903, at Bristol, Bucks County, Pa., flying down the river along Burlington 

 Island. 



My brothers have had better luck. On June 21, 1908, Mr. C. S. and G. E. 



