PLEGADIS FALCINELLUS : GLOSSY IBIS. 255 



we wish to trace the entire record. The Glossy Ibis 

 belongs more properly to the old world than to any part 

 of America, and it nowhere appears to be as abundant 

 in the United States as is its congener, Plegadis 

 guatauna, in the West. The notices of occurrences 

 in New England date at least as far back as the time of 

 Nuttall, who says that "a specimen has occasionally 

 been exposed for sale in the market of Boston" (Man. 

 Orn., ii, 1834, p. 89), as also cited by Peabody, Rep. B. 

 Mass., 1839, p. 365. But this does not necessarily imply 

 that such birds were actually killed in Massachusetts, 

 though warranting the probability that this was actually 

 the case. The Rev. J. H. Linsley speaks of five 

 specimens taken at Stratford, Conn. (Am. Journ. Sci., 

 xliv, 1843, p. 266; cited by Merriam, Rev. B. Conn., 

 1877, p. no). Mr. Samuel Cabot, Jr., records a 

 specimen from Fresh Pond, * Cambridge, Mass., two 

 from Middleboro, Mass., and one from Middletown, 

 Conn., all in "June, 1850" (Pr. Bost. Soc, iii, 1850, pp. 

 313, 314). This record is cited by Putnam, 1856, 

 Allen, 1864, Coues, 1868, and Maynard, 1870; and Mr. 

 Purdie receives from F. C. Browne, of Framingham, 

 extracts from a journal kept while he was at Harvard 

 College in 1850. His classmate shot the Fresh Pond 

 bird, with which were two others that got away. 

 This was May 7th or 8th, 1850 — not June, as Mr. Cabot 

 has it. Under date of May 23, 1850, Mr. Browne's 

 journal reads : " Mr. Thoreau tells me of a Glossy Ibis 

 shot near the Concord river by a Mr. Melvin." This 

 Concord river specimen, then, is one which has not 



* Mr. Purdie informs Dr. Coues that this 1850 Fresh Pond 

 specimen is still preserved in the rooms of the Boston Society ol 

 Natural History. 



