General Notes. 239 



since, he remarked that he was once on a peak of the Unaka Mountains, 

 in Southeastern Tennessee, in August, and found the Snowbird nesting 

 around the very crest of the peak, on the ground, in some tussocks of 

 grass, the top of the peak being destitute of trees. The locality is prob- 

 ably in the " Smoky Range," southeast of Knoxville, many of the higher 

 peaks of which attain an altitude exceeding six thousand feet. Dr. Coues 

 refers to the nesting of this species in the " Graylock Range " (Birds of 

 the Northwest, p. 141). — George H. Ragsdale, Gainesville, Texas. 



Capture of a Fish Crow (Coitus ossifragus) near Seahright, 

 Monmouth County, New Jersey. — April 14, 1879, Edward Keeler 

 brought me a " Sea Crow," stating that it was shot the day before, in com- 

 pany witli many '-Land Crows" (probably C. americanus, but C. corax 

 also occurs) ; all were very shy. It proved, on dissection, to be a male 

 bird; and of remarkably large size. Its dimensions are greater than 

 any I can find on record, viz. : Length, 17.50 ; extent, 34.00 ; wing, 11.50 ; 

 tail, 7.10; culmen, 1.63; gape, 1.92; tarsus, 1.90; middle toe and claw, 

 1.96 ; graduation of tail, .55. The stomach contained two whole shrimps, 

 besides several fragments of the same. — Louis A. Zerega, 23 North 

 Washington Square, New York City. 



The Rocky Mountain Whiskey-Jack (Perisoreus canadensis capi- 

 tal^). — This race of the Canada Jay, so very different from the two styles 

 found to the westward and eastward, obscurus and canadensis, is peculiar 

 to the Rocky Mountain region, and is especially abundant in the State of 

 Colorado. I have just received from Mr. Edwin Carter the nest, eggs, 

 and female parent, taken this spring, and although the differences be- 

 tween the three forms are varietal rather than specific, it will be 

 interesting to compare its nest and eggs with what little we know of those 

 of the more eastern form. Writing, May 26, 1878, from his camp on the 

 Shuto Platte, El Paso County, Mr. Carter says : " The Jay, capita/is, is 

 not here. They are only found from 8,000 feet up to the limit of trees. 

 They breed about Breckenridge, but I have never taken their eggs, and I 

 know of no other bird that covers its action so completely during the nest- 

 ing season. The young are on wing by the middle of June." On the 

 2d of April, 1879, Mr. Carter found the nest of the Rocky Mountain Jay 

 near Breckenridge. The nest was on the horizontal branch of a pine 

 tree, three feet from the trunk and forty feet from the ground. It con- 

 tained three eggs, apparently its full complement, which were slightly in- 

 cubated. The nest, which is now before me as I write, is warmly, strongly, 

 and compactly interwoven of various materials, of which the feathers and 

 down of various kinds of birds constitute the characteristic ingredient. 

 The nest measures 4 inches in external height, and 7 in diameter. The 

 cavity is 2 inches deep, and 4 in diameter at the top. The external frame- 

 work of the nest is a rude but strong interweaving of twigs and small 

 branches of pine, enclosing a closely impacted inner nest composed of 



