Tee AOnUe. BeOOND Bau by be TN 5 
Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, and Argentina. Its scientific name is a mouth- 
ful—Phaetusa simplex chloropoda. 
Other members of the Chicago Ornithological Society, and of the 
Evanston Bird club, studied the bird carefully over a period of about 10 
days before it disappeared. They further clinched the identification with a 
visit to the Chicago Natural History museum, where they examined the 
skins of every tern in the museum’s large collection. Those who made the 
museum trip, after observing the living bird a number of times, were 
Charles T. Clark, Theodore J. Nork, and Edward Williams, of Chicago; 
Mrs. Paul Stephenson, Mrs. Russell Mannette, and Mrs. Albert J. Zimmer- 
mann, of Evanston, and Mrs. John R. Mannix of Winnetka. 
How the tern got to Chicago is anybody’s guess. Robert Bean of the 
Brookfield zoo, and Fred Meyer of the Lincoln Park zoo, declare that it 
was not an “escapee” from their collections. It might have been carried 
across the Caribbean by wind currents and continued up the Mississippi 
and Illinois river valleys to the Calumet area. The habitat is similar to 
its native one—it’s just on the wrong continent. 
Another rarity, and a “life-time first” for most of the observers, was 
a ruff, which spent about a week in mid-July at the sewage disposal plant 
on 130th st. This bird from northern Europe, Russia, and Siberia, is 
exceedingly rare, but unlike the tern, it has been recorded a few times. 
The specimen bore no resemblance to the picture in Peterson’s Guide. The 
same group who studied the tern skins went over the museum’s collection 
of ruffs and found it to be a male which was in transition from spring to 
fall plumage. The ruff was missing, but the breast was still black, and the 
back a rusty brown heavily tinged with black. 
Egrets are back in even greater numbers than last year. There must be 
several hundred birds in the Chicago area. As many as 40 American 
egrets have been counted in a single pond. And best of all, there are a 
few of the once almost extinct snowy egrets, and many immature little 
blue herons in their white plumage. On Sunday, July 24, near Willow 
Springs rd. in the new Sauganashkee Wildlife refuge, were seen in a 
single flight 16 little blue herons and two snowy egrets. The two species 
are the same size, considerably smaller than the American egret, but the 
black legs and ‘“‘golden slippers” of the snowy distinguish it from the little 
blue, which has greenish legs and feet. For the return of these beautiful 
birds we must thank the National Audubon Society and its associates who 
saved them from extinction at the hands of plume hunters. 
fi ft ft 
Bird Slides 
Arrangements to borrow color bird slides owned by the Illinois Audubon 
Society may be made by responsible individuals or groups through Miss 
Dawn Davey, Illinois Audubon Society, Chicago Natural History Museum, 
Chicago 5, Illinois. Give preferences as to dates, far enough in advance 
for return of a loan agreement form. 
