298 



THE OOLOGIST 



Preliminary List of Water Birds of the 



Middle Delaware Valley. 



A Correction. 



In the September, 1912, OOLOGIST, 

 I published a paper, "Preliminary List 

 of Water Birds in the Middle Delaware 

 Valley," which was severly criticized 

 in the Auk, 1913, p. 139; and Cassinia, 

 1913, p. 64. These criticisms seem to 

 call for a reply and as Mr. Barnes has 

 asked me to explain what there is in 

 them it is necessary for me to do so. 

 The chief faults of my article, ac- 

 cording to the critic, appears to be its 

 lack of originality and the enumera- 

 tion of some species of which there are 

 no published records, but as I wrote 

 the paper without any pretention to 

 originality and as it is only a prelim- 

 inary list I really cannot see where 

 I have erred in enumerating the doubt- 

 iul occurrence of these species, par- 

 ticularly in view of the fact that full 

 •data upon these misleading? records 

 were to be given in the final report. 

 My paper, moreover, was purposely 

 written to excite the professional or- 

 nithologists to adverse criticism — and 

 it seems to have accomplished its pur- 

 pose! But it may not be as mislead- 

 ing as they appear to think or believe. 

 Mr. Whitmer Stone has written me 

 upon this subject and I present here- 

 with a list of most of the species which 

 are supposed never to have occurred 

 in this region or are of exceedingly 

 xarity, as accidental stragglers, which 

 struck Mr. Stone as open to criticism. 

 The quotations are his: 



Kittiwake — "No published evidence 

 as far as I know." 



Franklin's Gull — "Purely accidental. 

 No record but mine in the Auk, 1912." 

 Gull-billed Tern— "I know of only 

 one not very satisfactory record." 

 Royal Tern — "No record." 

 Foster's Tern — "Purely surmise, as 

 you say, 'There is no evidence'." 



Least Tern — "No evidence that it 



was anything but an extremely rare 

 straggler." 



Roseate Tern — "No evidence." 



Greater Shearwater — "No record." 



Strom Petrel — "One record which is 

 probably erroneous as has been point- 

 ed out." 



Brown Pelican — "No record." 



Scotters — "Pure guess work for two 

 at least." 



White-franted Goose — "Only one rec- 

 ord." 



Roseate Spoonbill — "No record." 



White Ibis — "No record." 



Buff-breasted Sandpiper — "No rec- 

 ord." 



With several exceptions, there are 

 no authentic records of the occurrence 

 of most of the foregoing species in the 

 Middle Delaware Valley, but that does 

 not indicate that they have never oc- 

 curred or been taken here because 

 their capture or observance were 

 never recorded. 



In conclusion I will again assert 

 that what I shall have to say in re- 

 gard to the unfortunateness and mis- 

 leadings of my paper apropos my lack 

 of annotations, etc., will be dealt fully 

 with in my final report upon the 

 "Water Birds of the Middle Delaware 

 Valley." 



Richard F. Miller. 

 Philadelphia, Pa. 



Notes on the Red-cockaded Woodpeck- 

 er From Texas. 



The Red-cockaded Woodpecker is 

 an extremely rare resident of pine 

 woods near Houston, Texas, and in all 

 my roamings about Harris county in 

 search of interesting bird nests since 

 moving to Houston in 1909, I never 

 found a nest of this bird until one day 

 in May, 1912. 



The birds had occasionally been 

 seen in a certain tract of pine woods 

 bordering Buffalo Bayou west of Hous- 

 ton, so on May 25, I gathered my out- 



