Annotated List 41 



to a nest, though it seemed more wary than the 

 common, lighter species. Unfortunately, on May 

 28, the date of my next visit ; I found that this 

 outlying part of the herony had been raided by the 

 Crows and N.violacens no longer present. This is 

 the first record for Chester county and the third 

 for Pennsylvania, all of which come from the lower 

 Schuylkill river region.^" 



44. Grus mexicanus Sandhill Crane. Straggler. 

 About 1 840, a flock of four or five individuals mov- 

 ing northward, occurred along the west branch of 

 the White Clay creek; one was shot and presented 

 to Dr. Ezra Michener, who preserved and kept it 

 in his collection for many years; later it came into 

 the collection of the Swarthmore college, where it 

 was lost when the building was burned. At the 

 time of this capture, most American ornithologists 

 recognized with certainty but a single species — Grus 

 americanus the White or Whooping Crane; and 

 Barnard so listed it, doubtless with the full approval 

 of his friend Michener. The latter however in his 

 complete list some twenty years later, gives it as 

 "Grus canadensis Sandhill Crane." Michener's re- 

 marks convinces one of his comparison and elimina- 

 tion of G.americanus, and since he followed closely 

 the nomenclature and classification of Baird, it seems 

 improbable that he should have overlooked the 

 "G.fraterculus" of Cassin which refers to the Little 

 Brown Crane rather than G.canadensis (Baird, 

 Birds, 1858, 655) which in this instance fe a 

 synonym of G.mexicanus. Dr. Michener appears 

 to have been an accomplished and conscientious 



