580 NOTES ON SOME OF THE 



tioiiable, I omitted it from my Catalogue. As Dr. Cones re- 

 marks, New England is beyond its usual range ; the nearest 

 point heretofore given where it regularly occurs is Hamilton, 

 C. W., where, according to Mr. Charles Mcll wraith, it is not 

 a very rare summer resident.* Mr. Charles Lincleu informs 

 me that he has this year obtained the birds and a nest con- 

 taining six eggs at Buffalo, N. Y. Its occasional occurrence 

 in New England hence becomes more probable. 



On several occasions the so-called Collurio excubitoroides 

 has been confounded by local observers with the Collurio 

 Ludovicianus, and with very good reason, since they are 

 undoubtedly the same. Specimens from the upper Missis- 

 sippi valley, where the habitats of the two supposed species 

 join, are with difficulty referred to the one rather than to 

 the other. In habits and every particular, except in some 

 minor differences of coloration, the two are quite alike. In 

 fact no one seems to have insisted very strenuously on the 

 specific distinctness of (7. Ludovicianus and (7. excubito- 

 roides (or of (7. elegans from the latter) though they have 

 usually been presumed to be distinct. I have collected the 

 birds in question in Western Iowa, Illinois, and in Florida ; 

 according to authors those from the first two localities should 

 belong to G. excubitoroides and those from the latter to (7. 

 Ludovicianus. The differences between them are exceedingly 

 slight. Specimens of the so-called C. Ludovicianus from 

 the South Atlantic states differ from others from California 

 and Iowa called C. excubitoroides not more than specimens 

 of the latter from New Mexico do from Iowa ones, or than 

 the two supposed species do in the average, and less than 

 specimens from near the assumed line of junction of their 

 respective habitats. Audubon, it seems to me, very properly 

 regarded them as a single species. It seems to be rare 

 in the Atlantic states north of Washington, but in the 

 interior reaches the Saskatchewan valley, and extends west- 

 ward to the Pacific, and south to Mexico. In avoiding the 



* Birds of Hamilton, C. W., Proc. Essex Inst., Vol. v, p. 87. 



