Vol -£)20 XVI1 ] General Notes. 133 



I worked my passage to a few feet of the spot. The swift was clinging 

 to the cymoid head of the elder eating the fruit. The ease with which the 

 bird took flight from its slender perch, rising directly upward several feet 

 above the cover and dropping rail-like back into it, was interesting and 

 worthy of note. 



The cover harbored at the time not less than fifty swifts. Most of them 

 were flushed with more or less difficulty, but some individuals took wing 

 within arm-reach of the observer. No others were noted eating fruit. 

 The day was dark and threatening with strong easterly wind. 



One week later the writer had an opportunity for a second study of the 

 region near the same hour, differing, however, in the day being clear and 

 warm. No swifts were observed in the air on my arrival in the vicinity, 

 but beating about in the heavy cover startled several therefrom. No 

 further record could be obtained of their eating fruit. It should be stated 

 that on the east side of this shelter is a row of medium sized willows with 

 low, wide-spreading branches on the west, affording a continuous shadow 

 over the haunts. 



It is evident that the birds had established a roosting, or resting place 

 out of the ordinary. It is not satisfactorily settled whether the birds 

 sought the brush to feed on elder-berries or for shelter. The writer is of the 

 opinion that the bird seen eating berries was only an exceptional case 

 where the bird took a berry after alighting within reach of it. 



The swift is a very uncommon breeding species in the limits of Orient. 

 Rarely more than three to six pairs nest; while sometimes it does not 

 nest at all. It is, however, regular and fairly common in August. There 

 are no hollow trees at this station for their use, and they have never been 

 seen to enter chimneys in the fall migration here. As the birds observed 

 were practically all migrants, this habit of seeking shelter in deep shrub- 

 bery on the marshes should be noted in other localities also. 



On the opposite side of the marsh is a great Tree Swallow roost, which is 

 also occupied by grackles, martins, starlings and other species in their turn. 

 Whether the two have any connection is a matter of conjecture. — Roy 

 Latham, Orient, Long Island, N. Y. 



Empidonax griseus in Nevada. — The Gray Flycatcher (Empidonax 

 griseus) has been detected more or less frequently in Colorado, California, 

 and Oregon, but there seems to be no published statement of its presence in 

 the State of Nevada. There is, however, a very typical adult female in 

 the Biological Survey collection (No. 158,354, U. S. Nat. Mus.) obtained 

 by Mr. Vernon Bailey at Cloverdale, Nye County, Nevada, on May 30, 

 1898. Still another typical example, an adult female also in the Biological 

 Survey collection (No. 158,350, U. S. Nat. Mus.), was obtained by the same 

 collector at an altitude of 8700 feet on Arc Dome in the Toyabe Mountains 

 in central Nevada, on May 25, 1898. The species will doubtless prove to 

 be of more or less regular occurrence in this State. — Harry C. Ober- 

 holser, U. S. Biol. Surveij, Washington, D. C. 



