356 



General Notes. [ ( ^' t k 



soap box partly filled with sweepings from the hayloft affords them 

 plenty of leg exercise, but unfortunately is also the cause of many a sel- 

 fish quarrel. In order that my birds keep in good health, I have always 

 studied to vary their fare. Besides canary ahd millet seed, they receive 

 ants' eggs. Mockingbird food, berries, meal worms, etc. If no other live 

 food is offered, they will even accept small earthworms. In winter the 

 little fat grubs and 'worms' found in goldenrod galls are a welcome 

 treat. — E D. Downer, Utica, N. V. 



Ammodramus henslowii. — A Correction. — In 'The Auk' for April, 

 18S9, p. 194, I reported the occurrence at Fort Adams, Newport, R. I., of 

 Ammodramus henslo-wii. My identification was afterwards found to be 

 incorrect, but through oversight the record has not been changed until 

 now. — Wirt Robinson. 



Leconte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteit) in Kentucky. — A speci- 

 men was killed April 15, 1899, in an old weed grown clover field, about 

 two miles east of Lexington, Ky. It was quite tame, allowing us to 

 approach within five or six feet before attempting to escape. A second 

 specimen was seen July 16, while feeding near the foot of an old ' rock 

 fence' in a dirt lane, the sides of which were overgrown with catnip, 

 wild sage, and various other weeds and young trees. 



I believe the species is a rare summer resident and breeder. 



This is, as far as I am aware, the first record of its occurrence in Ken- 

 tucky. — Otto Holstein, Muir, Ky. 



Nesting of Nelson's Sparrow (Ammodramus neisoni) in North Dakota. — 

 June 14, 1899, on a broad, alkaline flat, lately a shallow arm of Devils 

 Lake, now nearly dried up, among scant, short grass in a wet, oozy spot, 

 I found the nest of this little known Sparrow, securing the sitting bird and 

 mate with the eggs. An overflow of surface water from a marsh just 

 bevond, during the spring, flows over this flat, at first through a sort of 

 natural ditch, then gradually spreading out till it loses itself in the sticky 

 soil. A bit of ground about three feet square, raised an inch or two from 

 the general level, was sufficient to cause this trifling flow of inch-deep 

 water to divide, forming a tiny island, which was not exactly dry but 

 more nearly so than the immediate surroundings. Here, sunk in the 

 wet earth, and lined sparingly about the sides, but very thickly in the 

 bottom, with fine dried grasses of a wiry nature was the nest, containing 

 five eggs raised by the thick lining well up out of the wet. As the gen- 

 eral situation when observed by me was rather dryer than when the nest 

 was first built it must be that the selection of a dismally wet spot was 

 deliberate and, perhaps, indicates the regular custom. 



The finding of the nest was purely accidental as, in a more or less vain 

 effort to keep my feet dry, I sprang from point to point, finally alighting 

 with both feet squarely astride the nest, and the sitting bird, as she flut- 



