68 
BULLETIN OF THE NUTTALL 
It will appear from the above description that this bird combines in 
nearly equal proportions the characters of Pedioecetes and Cupidonia. In 
the general pattern of coloration of the plumage it most resembles 0 . cupido, 
but the abdomen is spotted like the breast of Pedicecetes, and the wing- 
coverts are marked precisely as in that species. It has the neck-tufts of 
Cupidonia and the projecting tail-feathers of Pedicecetes, both of these 
characters, however, slightly modified. A remarkable feature appears in 
the extension of the upper tail-coverts nearly to the tips of the rectrices. 
Nelson’s “Birds of Northeastern Illinois.”* — • Under the above 
title Mr. E. W. Nelson gives us the results of three years’ investigation in 
Cook and Lake Counties in the northeastern corner of Illinois, “a belt 
about twenty-five miles wide, bordering Lake Michigan in Illinois,” in- 
cluding the field considered. As he remarks, the locality seems to form 
“ a kind of four-corners where the avian faunae of four regions intergrade” ; 
hence we find a somewhat novel juxtaposition of species. On or near the 
lake occur many birds formerly considered as more or less exclusively 
maritime. Notably among those of this class found in summer are Am- 
modromus caudacutus and Higialitis melodus ; during the migrations, 
Strepsilas interpres, Tringa maritima, T. canuta, Calidris arenaria, and 
Micropalama himantopus ; in winter, Histrionicus torquatus, Harelda gla- 
cialis, Somateria mollissima, S. spectabilis, Larus glaucus, and L. leucopterus. 
As might be expected, the species properly belonging to the Carolinian 
fauna which reach this point are, with a few exceptions, of either uncom- 
mon or rare occurrence, and they here seem to touch the extreme north- 
ern limit of their range in that longitude. But most interesting are the 
records of northern birds breeding so far south, especially Limicoline and 
Natatorial species. Thus Mr. Nelson has found nesting in greater or less 
abundance, Tringa minutilla, Totanus melanoleucus, T. flavipes, T. solita- 
rius, Mareca americana, Fulix affinis, F* collaris, Erismatura rubida, Mer- 
gus serrator, and some others. 
It is not, however, from the simple enumeration of species, that this list 
derives its chief value and interest, but from the unusually complete and 
satisfactory character of the biographical annotations, which embrace good 
descriptions of the habits of many birds previously but little known. 
Thus Mr. Nelson describes the songs of Turdus alicice and Oporornis 
* Birds of Northeastern Illinois. By E. W. Nelson. Bulletin of the Essex 
Institute, Vol. YIII, 1876, Nos. 9-12, pp. 90-155, April, 1877. 
