488 General Notes. [^^J' 



was sunk in the ground at the foot of a small oak tree in vicinity of 

 some small jack pines {Pi>ius banksiana). The vegetation was very heavy, 

 and the nest was well concealed by deer-vine grass and other weeds. It 

 was composed of dry grass, weed stems and pine needles. The male vis- 

 ited the nest while I was watching. The eggs have very thin shells, with 

 very little gloss, and are spotted and blotched, mostly at top, with pink 

 and chocolate spots. Average size, .73 X -55 of an inch. 



The song of the male as follows : Trp, trp, terp, ierp, terp^ ser-ivit, 

 cr, -iver, all but the first two notes uttered rapidly. Besides this song, the 

 prevalent one, the male has two other shorter song-notes. The female 

 has a chirp like that of a sparrow. The male is a beautiful bird and a 

 fine, incessant singer during the breeding season. The female sits very 

 close on her eggs and can be caught on the nest with the hands. The 

 birds are not wild and will allow close observation. They inhabit the 

 high jack pine ridges, and seem to feed principally on an insect that 

 infests the jack pine, occasionally flying to the ground for other food. 

 The bird is called the Jack Pine Bird in northern Michigan. 



As the nests are well concealed, and the female is a close sitter, it is a 

 very difficult matter to find them, as the male will sing a long distance 

 from the nest. This set is, I believe, the first perfect set of this bird's 

 eggs known to science.— Edward Arnold, Battle Creek, Mick. 



An Interesting Variation in Seiurus. — A diagnostic character of this 

 genus is the absence of white (or other colored) spots from the tail 

 feathers. In all descriptions of Seiurus, and in all kej's including it, this 

 feature is set forth in practically the same language as in the following 

 extract from Ridgway (1902, p. 429) : "Inner webs of the lateral rectrices 

 without white terminal spot." Thus it may be concluded that this char- 

 acter is essential to a definition of the genus, or in other words, is a 

 generic character. It is this fact that lends a greater interest to the 

 following record. 



A specimen of Seiurus noveboracensis notabilis in the collection of 

 the University of Indiana (No. 128) has distinctly marked, white, termi- 

 nal spots on the outermost and next to the outermost rectrices of the 

 right side, and indications of similar markings on their fellows of the 

 left side, in the form of correspondingly placed narrow edgings of white. 

 The facts that these markings are paired, and that they are in precisely 

 the position of the blotches on the rectrices of most of our warblers with 

 normally parti-colored tail-feathers, remove them entirely from the cate- 

 gory of those irregularly shaped, white patches, which are often found on 

 the primaries or on the tail-feathers, or in fact on any of the feathers of 

 man^' species of birds. 



This change from a character of its own genus to that of another must 

 be considered as having a deeper, a phylogenetic significance. The color 

 arrangement of Seiurus tends to the primitive or streaked type. The 



