40 Bulletin No. 20. 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Notes from Philadelphia. — Mr. Davie, in his "Nests and Eggs" says 

 concerning the Robin, that the eggs are "usually four, rarely five." This 

 spring there were under my observation, near home, ten nests of the 

 Robin. Of these, two never contained eggs ; of the other eight, two con- 

 tained when the set was completed, two eggs ; three had three eggs ; three 

 four eggs and one, five. Therefore it would seem to me that it should be 

 said that the number of eggs in a complete set is from two to five. The 

 nests were all, except the one of five eggs, undisturbed and the broods 

 reared. I am also positive that the nests were not disturbed in any way 

 and it is too early for second sets. 



I should like to withdraw a statement that I made in the last number 

 of the Bulletin about the curious Sparrow's nest. Since then I have 

 found that all the newly built nests have the hole in the side and not the 

 top. There are some thirty or forty nests about the home and are all, 

 without exception, built in this manner. 



While on a collecting trip to the Delaware Ri\'er marshes, on Feb. 26, 

 I shot a Fish Crow, C. ossifraj^us, which had a white feather in the 

 greater coverts of each wing. 



On .May 29, a Wilson's Phalarope was presented to the Delaware Val- 

 ley Ornithological Club. It was shot on the marshes back of Ocean 

 City. This is the only specimen of this bird that has ever been shot by 

 any member of the club. 



Appropriation of the Yellow-billed Magpie's Nest by the Desert 

 Sparrow Hawk. — In San Benito County, California, the Desert Sparrow 

 Hawk, Falco spar-i<crius deserticoliis, has adopted a mode of nesting 

 which differs somewhat from the traditional habit of taking up an abode 

 in the cavity of some tree. Here a majority of the.se little Falcons ap- 

 propriate old nests of the Yellow-billed Magpie, and it is quite probable 

 that they take forcible possession of some of the nests after they have 

 been repaired by the Magpies, as many of the nests I have seen are 

 lined with roots and mud, which was undoubtedly the work of the latter 

 birds. On April 10, on visiting a live oak tree on a little hillside, I saw 

 a new Magpie's nest, from which the bird flew in its quiet, undulating 

 fashion, when I was half way up the tree The nest was round in shape 

 and one and one-half feet in diameter, with an entrance half way up. 

 The interior of the nest was six inches across and deeply cupped, being 

 about five inches deep, and lined neatly with roots. The nest held five 



