1885.] General Notes. 2 I 7 



Cyanocitta stelleri frontalis Nesting in Holes in Trees. — While collecting 

 birds and their eggs in company with my brother, Capt. B. F. Goss, in 

 the spring of 1884, in the vicinity of Julian, California, we found quite 

 a number of the nests of the Bine-fronted Jay, and in all cases but one in 

 holes and trough-like cavities in trees and stubs, ranging from four to 

 fifty feet from the ground, generally ten to twenty feet up. The nest 

 found outside was built upon a large horizontal limb of an oak close 

 beside a gnarl, the sprout-like limbs of which thickly covered the nest 

 overhead, and almost hid it from view below. 



From our knowledge of the breeding habits of the family we looked 

 for their nests on trees and bushes, and spent days in climbing over and 

 up and down the hills and mountain-sides, carefully examining every 

 spot that seemed to us a natural nesting place, but without success, 

 though often finding nests of the California Jay (Aphelocoma califof- 

 m'ca) ; and I am inclined to think we should have returned without their 

 eggs had I not, in suddenly coming to the top of a hill, discovered a 

 pair of the birds hopping over the ground and picking up bits of sticks, 

 which they dropped on seeing me, and flew away. Here was a pointer, 

 and to remove any suspicion that their actions had been observed, I did 

 not halt for a moment or change my course, but walked leisurely on until 

 well out of sight, then swung back around the bill, and cautiously ap- 

 proached a ledge of rocks over-looking the ground and concealed myself 

 behind them. On peeping out I saw the birds busily hopping about 

 picking up material for a nest; they soon flew with it, both together 

 or nearly so, directly to, or rather into, an opening or hollow near the base 

 of a large tree. After watching them make a few trips I stole awav and 

 hastened to inform my brother of the lucky find. It was a surprise to us 

 both. 



The nests are quite bulky, made loosely of sticks, stems of weeds, and 

 lined with fibrous rootlets and grasses, and as they are all built at or 

 near the opening, the tell-tale sticks project and make the finding of 

 their nests an easy matter. Measurements of the first two sets of eggs 

 taken, viz., May 19: 1.20 X .87, 1.20 X .88, 1.21 X .88; May .21: 1.22 X 

 .88 1. 15 X .86, 1. 19 X .86, 1.16 X .85. Color light blue, speckled and 

 spotted with dark brown, rather thickest at large end. — N. S. Goss, 

 Topeka, Kansas. 



The First Nest and Eggs of Eremophila alpestris found in Niagara 

 County, N. Y. — If there is one nest which I have looked for more than for 

 another, it is the nest of the Horned Lark. From early in March till late 

 in May, for the past five years, I have searched in vain. On the 17th 

 of June, 18S4, while collecting in the town of Porter, Niagara County, 

 I was fortunate in securing the coveted prize. I was in company with 

 a young farmer, and, as we were returning from our forenoon's tramp, he 

 asked what bird it was, with a black throat, which he saw early in the 

 morning and late in the afternoon, running in the road, and which breeds 

 three times a year. I asked him if it ran or hopped, and how he knew 



