436' General Notes. [^f 



Lake Iamonia, Florida, is indisputable. The specimen is an adult male in 

 nuptial plumage and is now in the Museum of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Philadelphia. The gentleman who shot the bird and the taxi- 

 dermist who mounted it in Philadelphia are known to us here. I exam- 

 ined it freshly skinned. — S. N. Rhoads, H addon field, N. J. 



The Snowy Heron in Camden County, N. J. — On July 16, 1904, I saw a 

 fine adult Snowy Heron (Egretta candidissima) near Delair, Camden 

 County, N. J., feeding with an immature Black-crowned Night Heron on 

 the Pea Shore Flats of the Delaware River. It allowed us to approach 

 quite close in our boat and reluctantly took wing as we rowed in closer 

 and closer, preceded by the more wary Squauks, and both birds flew into a 

 small grove of trees on the shore. 



This is the first authentic record of the occurrence of the Snowy Heron in 

 the Delaware Valley in recent years, and as the bird was well seen at a 

 distance of less than fifty feet there can be no doubt as to the correctness 

 of my identification. I am positive of it, and would inform the incredulous, 

 who may be inclined to think that the bird I saw was an immature Little 

 Blue Heron (Florida ccerulea), that I am well acquainted with the dis- 

 tinguishing marks of the two species and recognized the bird at once as the 

 Snowy Heron. Furthermore, I have been hunting for this bird for several 

 years, but only to run across one without a firearm of any sort. Hard 

 luck, truly, but this seems to be a frequent misfortune of mine, possibly 

 because I am not of a collector of skins and seldom carry a gun, for I have 

 on several occasions stumbled upon rare birds and wished in vain for a gun. 



A few words regarding the status of the Snowy Heron in the Delaware 

 Valley will not be amiss in this connection. In Stone's 'Birds of Eastern 

 Pennsylvania and New Jersey' it is given as a "straggler from the South'' 

 (page 63); and yet Chapman, in his ' Handbook,' says it breeds as far north 

 as Long Island. This is a rather singular statement in these days, although 

 it may have bred there formerly. However, now it is a rare transient 

 every where north of 39° north latitude at least. 



Evans in his excellent paper on 'The Unusual Flight of White Herons 

 in 1902' (see 'Cassinia' for 1902, page 15) does not mention a capture or a 

 record of the Snowy Heron, nor are there any subsequent records. The 

 Snowy Heron, then, can rightly be regarded as a "rare straggler" in the 

 Delaware Valley, at least. — Richard F. Miller, Harroivgate, Phila- 

 delphia, Pa. 



American Coot (Fulica americana) Nesting near Newark, New Jersey. — 

 In 'The Auk,' XXIV, pp. 1-11, I recorded the nesting of the Pied-billed 

 Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) and the Florida Gallinule (Gallinvla galeata) 

 in the marshes near Newark, N. J.; also, the presence in the same marshes 

 of the American Coot, although no nest of this species was discovered. 

 On May 30, 1907, I visited the same marsh area in company with Messrs. 

 J. P. Callender, P. B. Philipp, R. H. Southard, and T. F. Wilcox — all 



