1889. ] General Notes. I 87 
Several of them were killed, but I could learn of but the one that was 
preserved. It is now in the possession of Mr. Jno. C. Leffel of Mt. Ver- 
non. 
On September 11, 1888, while engaged for the U. S. Fish Commission 
in exploring the Wabash River, I had the good fortune to come upon a 
flock of nine Wood Ibises at Mackey’s Ferry, ten miles west of Mount 
Vernon. They were sitting in the tops of two dead trees just across the 
river on the Illinois side, and remained there during the entire time of 
our stay at the Ferry,—from about § to 11 A. M. 
In addition to these, I find the following general references to its oc- 
currence in Indiana. An old hunter of this city (Terre Haute) in whom 
Thave confidence tells me that his father shot a Wood Ibis several years 
ago from a flock of several at the Old Reservoir south of Terre Haute. 
From the description given by the hunter I am quite certain he was not 
mistaken. 
Ridgway, in his catalogue of the birds of Illinois, says the Wood Ibis is 
a summer sojourner in the extreme south of the State, and an irregular 
summer visitant in the northern portion. And in a letter to me dated 
January 26, 1889, Mr. Ridgway says:— ‘I remember, years ago, seeing 
these birds occasionally, soaring in circles, high in air, above the Wabash 
River, at Mt. Carmel, the season being, I think, midsummer. Again, 
either in summer or early fall, I started a large flock which had been perch- 
ing on the branches of a large dead sycamore tree Overhanging the bank 
of White River Pond, just below the mouth of the White River, but did 
not get any specimens. The species, to my certain knowledge, occurs 
more or less plentifully, at times, at the Cypress Pond in the southwestern 
corner of Knox County, [Indiana], but owing to the circumstance that I 
am so little in that part of the country, Iam unable to state whether they 
occur there regularly or not. I believe that the species formerly bred in 
small numbers in that portion of the Wabash Valley, though I have no 
distinct evidence upon which to base this supposition. Most of the birds 
now seen there, however, occur there late in summer (August and Sep- 
tember), a considerable portion of them, perhaps a majority, being young 
birds of the year.” Mr. Ridgway further says that he saw ‘‘at Mt. Carmel, 
the dried head of one that was killed by a hunter at the Cypress Pond in 
Knox County,” and that he has been ‘‘reliably informed of others having 
been killed there.” 
I may add that inquiry among people in Posey, Gibson, and Knox Coun- 
ties seems to show that it is a very rare bird there,—one that is not often 
seen except by those fellows who are wont to prowl: around secluded 
ponds and wade cypress swamps, looking for the unusual among animate 
things.—B. W. EVERMANN, State Normal School, Terre Haute, Indiana. 
Additional Notes on the Bittern.—Mr. Torrey’s notes on the ‘Booming 
of the Bittern’ interested me very much, and while in most respects my 
observations agree closely with his, I hope to be able to throw light on 
some particulars. 
