266 Dutcher, Long Island Birds. y r ul 



and was killed by h i in as it passed over his boat. I received it from Mr. 

 Merritt a few days afterwards and sent it to Mr. Wallace where 3011 saw it. 



Yours, very truly, 



M. J. Earley. 



The specimen while yet in the flesh was brought to the attention of Mr. 

 L. S. Foster by Mr. Wallace, who, after he had skinned it, gave me the 

 body for sexing. I found the sexual organs very fully developed and the 

 bird very fat. Most of the skeleton has been preserved, and is now in 

 the osteological collection of the American Museum of Natural History. 



Branta nigricans. Black Brant. — The following letter from Mr. 

 George N. Lawrence, dated September 9, 1889, is of great interest: "I 

 send an account of a Black Brant I saw lately at Babylon. I think this is 

 the second specimen obtained on Long Island, the other being in the 

 Museum of the Long Island Historical Society. In the office of the 

 Watson House I saw a fine specimen which was killed this spring in the 

 Great South Bay. On inquiry 1 found it was shot by William Saxton, a 

 noted gunner and bayman. I went to see him to get any facts concerning 

 its acquisition that he was able to give. He said Brant were unusually 

 plenty in the spring, and one day while lying at his decoys he saw a flock 

 of about thirty individuals approaching, and as they were passing at a 

 long range he fired and knocked out five. On picking them up he 

 noticed one very black in color and of rather larger size than the others; 

 he at once concluded it was a Black Brant, of which he had often heard 

 his father speak, though he had never seen one. He sold it with other 

 birds to a dealer, from whom it was purchased by Mr. Stetson." 



Tantalus loculator. Wood Ibis. — This species is new to Long Island, 

 not having been included in any previous list. This specimen was brought 

 to my attention by Mr. John C. Knoess, taxidermist, of Riverhead. who 

 mounted it and published a note of its capture in the 'Republican Watch- 

 man' of Greenport, Suffolk Co., under date of August 16, 1S90. Sub- 

 sequently Mr. C A. Schellinger. who owns the specimen, wrote me that 

 he shot the bird June 21, 1890, in a swamp north of East Marion; it was 

 alone and is the only one of the kind ever seen there. 



Nycticorax violaceus. Yellow-crowned Night Heron. — Mr. Giraud 

 dismisses this southern Heron with few words, merely saying, "The 

 Yellow-crowned Heron seldom extends its visits to Long Island."' His 

 statement, written in 1S44, would apply today just as well, for it is only 

 now that I am able to make my first record of this species during a 

 period of fifteen years' collecting. Mr. A. D. Lott, one of my valued 

 correspondents, wrote to me that a specimen of N. violaceus had been 

 caught alive, in the latter part of April, in a swamp near the village of 

 Freeport, Queens Co. He adds, 'We have never seen a bird like it 

 before." 



1 'Birds of Long Island,' p. 281. 



