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, bearing to one another exactly the 
same relation as that between Ardea rufescens , Bodd., and A. pealei, 
Bonap. — Robert Ridgway, 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 on the Little Brown Crane (Grus fraterculus, 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 description 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. 
Bill. 
Tail. Tarsus. Mid.Toe. Culmen. Comm. Height. 
9.00 9.50 4.10 5.60 5.75 1.15 
6.80 7.50 3.36 3.04 3.16 .74 
6.90 6.70 2.95 3.30 3.65 .80 
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, and 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 
G. canadensis , 
G. fraterculus , 
Wing. 
22.00 
* 1 7.50 
f 18.00 
* Measurements of the original specimen (S.| I., No. 10,378), from Baird, 
t Dr. Palmer’s specimen (M. C. Z., No. 26,656), “female.” 
