General Notes. 123 



evidence is all that was needed to settle the question of the identity of 

 the two forms in question, and there cannot now be any doubt that they 

 represent two phases of one species, bearinoj to one another exactly the 

 same relation as that between Ardea mfescens, Bodd., and ^4. pealei, 

 Bonap. — Robert Ridgwat, Washington, D. C. 



The Little Blue Heron in Rhode Island. — Although this rare 

 accidental straggler from the South has been recorded as far north as the 

 Massachusetts coast, yet its occurrence anywhere in New England is note- 

 worthy. 



Mr. F. T. Jencks informs me of the capture of a young specimen in 

 white plumage, which was shot at Warwick, R. I., July 13, 1878, and 

 brought to him for preservation. — Ruthven Deane, Cambridge, Mass. 



Note ox the Little Brown Crane (Grus fratei-cuhis, Cassin). — 

 The small Brown Crane, described by Professor Baird in 1858 (P. R. R. 

 Rep., IX, p. 656) as " Grus fraterculus, Cassin," appears to have been 

 known thus far only from the single specimen collected at Albuquerque, 

 New Mexico, by H. B. Mollhausen, in October, 1853. It therefore gives 

 me pleasure to announce the capture of a second specimen by Dr. Edward 

 Palmer, at the Hacienda Angostura, Rio Verde, Mexico, February 23, 

 1879, recently received at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. This 

 specimen agrees in all essential points with the descrij)tion of the type of 

 the species ; it is, however, slightly larger, and more nearly adult. As 

 this species has been considered (see Coues's Key to North American 

 Birds, p. 271 ; Henshaw, Rep. Geog. and Geol. Sur. W. 100th Merid., V, 

 Zool., p. 467) as the young of G. canadensis, a brief comparison of the 

 two forms may not be out of place. In general size G. fraterculus appears 

 to be fully one third smaller than G. canadensis, and is about one fourth 

 to one third less in linear measurements (the wing excepted), with the bill 

 relatively much shorter and smaller, as shown by the following measure- 

 ments, those given for G. canadensis being the average dimensions (in 

 inches and hundredths) of a considerable series. 



G. canadensis, 

 G. fraterculus. 



The only differences of moment between the two examples here referred 

 to G. fraterculus is the somewhat greater length of the tarsus and middle 

 toe, anil the rather shorter and smaller bill of the Albuquerque specimen. 



The chief difference in coloration between the two species consists 

 in the crown and occipital region being reddish in both specimens of 



* Measurements of the original specimen {S. I., No. 10,378), from Baird. 

 t Dr. Palmer's specimen (M. C. Z., No. 26,656), "female." 



