342 General Notes. [f^^ 



near Orland, a few miles southwest of Chicago, came across about two 

 hundred Calcarins pictus. Among them were ten or a dozen Calcaritis 

 ornatus, a bird of the western plains, heretofore not recorded from Illinois. 

 The birds were not very shy, allowing a near approach, and were positively 

 identified by Mr. Abbott, who is well acquainted with the species in the 

 field, having previously taken specimens in Dakota and Montana. — Henry 

 K. CoALE, Highland Park, III. 



The Type Locality of Vireo belli. — Audubon described Yireo belli with- 

 out giving any type locality. The type specimen is now in the United 

 States National Museum, and is labeled "Fort Union (?) Mr. Audubon." 

 This specimen is quoted without the question mark in Baird's ' Birds of 

 North America,' 1858, p. 337; in Baird's 'Review of North American 

 Birds,' 1866, p. 358, as "Fort Union, Dec. 1843"; while in Baird, 

 Brewer and Ridgway's 'North American Birds,' I, 1874, p. 389, the type 

 locality is given as "Missouri River," and the statement is made in the 

 text that this species was first procured "in what is now known as Dakota 

 Territory." The latest manual, Ridgway's 'Birds of North and Middle 

 America,' III, 1904, p. 204, gives the type locality as " Fort Union, Dakota, 

 type in Coll. U. S. Nat. Mus." 



There seems to be no foundation in fact, in any of these statements, 

 for giving Fort Union as the type locality. Yireo belli was described by 

 Audubon in Ms ' Birds of America,' octavo edition, 1844, p. 333, and he 

 says, " On the same day that Harris' Finch was procured, Mr. J. G. Bell .... 

 shot one of the species which I am now about to describe." On page 331 

 of the same volume, under Fringilla harrisii, the statement is made that 

 the " first specimen seen was procured May 4, 1843, a short distance below 

 the Black Snake Hills." Therefore, according to this statement, the type 

 of Vireo belli was secured May 4, 1843. From the journal of Audubon, it 

 is known that at this date he was a few miles below St. Joseph, Mo., and 

 under this date he speaks of securing " a new Finch" (Audubon and his 

 Journals, by Maria R. Audubon, I, 1897, p. 470), but he says nothing of 

 any new Vireo. Two days later, however, he says: "Bell also shot a 

 small Vireo, which is in all probability a new species (to me at least)." 

 This is the Vireo belli, and at this date the party was at St. Joseph, Mo. 

 There is thus a discrepancy of two days between the date given in Audu- 

 bon's journal and that mentioned in the original description of Vireo belli. 

 Audubon's journal mentions that another specimen of the Harris Finch 

 was shot on May 6, and it is evidently this specimen that Audubon 

 remembered when he wrote that Harris's Finch and Bell's Vireo were 

 taken the same day. The type of Vireo belli was therefore taken May 6, 

 1843, at St. Joseph, Mo. 



Audubon makes the explicit statement in the original description of 

 Vireo belli that he found it "as far up the Missouri River as Fort Union." 

 This is probably a mistake, as no subsequent observer has noted the 

 species farther north than southern South Dakota. 



