General Notes. 193 



one, and the sex could not be readily determined. — C. A. Allen, Nicasio, 

 Marin Co., Cal. 



Wilson's Thrush, with Spotted Egos and nesting on a Tree. — 

 In a collection of nests and eggs received from Vermont this season was 

 tin- nest of this species built upon a horizontal limb of a tree, fifteen feet 

 from the ground, and containing four spotted eggs. This is the only in- 

 stance I have ever known either of the nest being much above the ground 

 or of the eggs being other than immaculate. But I find it is not without 

 precedent. Mr. George 0. Welch several years since found a nest of this 

 Thrush in Lynn at a height of twenty-five feet above the ground, and Mr. 

 Allen has recorded (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., XVII, 48) an instance of 

 its having spotted eggs. This case combines both. The nest is large and 

 bulky, was saddled over quite a large limb, the impress of which is shown 

 in the base. The ground-color of one egg is unusually deep, as deep as 

 that of a Catbird, but of a different shade. The spots are of a bright 

 golden-brown, in one egg very strongly marked, in the other three not so 

 much so. The parent was sent with the nest, and before I received it its 

 identity had been carefully verified by that veteran ornithologist, Charles 

 S. Paine, Esq., of Kandolph, Vt. — T. M. Brewer, Boston, Mass. 



The Pygmy Owl (Glaucidium califomicum). — On the 13th of August, 

 1877, about dusk, I heard near the house a great fuss among a lot of Brewer's 

 Blackbirds, which had nested in a small clump of red- woods near by. On 

 approaching the spot, out went a bird, to which all the Blackbirds gave 

 chase. When all had settled in a red-wood tree near by, I saw a Pygmy 

 Owl sitting on a limb, — the cause of all the noise. I had my gun 

 brought to me, when I shot the Owl, which proved to be a female. Again 

 on July 8, 1878, at nine o'clock a. m., I heard a disturbance among the 

 Blackbirds in the same clump of trees, and, suspecting the cause, took my 

 gun and went to see what was the matter. On approaching the spot, out 

 flew a lot of birds of different species, and among them a G. califomicum, 

 which, after much trouble, I shot as it was flying over some low bushes ; 

 this one was a male. There were fighting the Owl one pair of Tyrannus 

 verticalis, one pair of Bullock's Orioles, one pair of Bewick's Wrens, three 

 Banded Tits (Chavuea fasciata), one pair of Pipilo oregonus, one pair of 

 P. crissalis, and about twenty Blackbirds (Scolecophagus cyanocephalus). 

 The bravest birds of the troop were Bewick's Wren and Bullock's Oriole, 

 which kept darting at the Owl's head as it sat on the ground devouring a 

 young Blackbird. I have seen a Pygmy Owl dart down and lift a Chip- 

 ping Squirrel with ease and carry it off. — C. A. Allen, Nicasio, Cal. 



The Carolina Wren in Massachusetts. — My friend, Mr. Geo. O. 

 Welch, secured a fine specimen of the Thryothorus ludovicianus in Lynn, 

 on the 6th of July. The imprudent stranger ventured within an easy 

 range of his work-room window, in the very heart of the city, and now 

 remains as tangible evidence of its right to a place on the list of the birds 

 of this State as well as New England. — T. M. Brewer, Boston, Mass. 



