602 General Notes. [bet 



post, or on the roof-ridge of the house itself. One of the windows of the 

 kitchen was usually left open. On two or three occasions the Vulture 

 alighted on this window-ledge, but seeing some one within, quickly de- 

 parted. When we were away from the house it was our custom to close 

 the window. However, one morning, we overlooked doing so. On this 

 occasion we left a good fire burning in the cook-stove, on which was placed 

 a stew-pan, with cover, containing a piece of meat and portions of several 

 kinds of vegetables. 



Returning from our tramp, we were surprised to find that our pro- 

 spective dinner had entirely disappeared, even to the liquid; although 

 the pan yet remained on the stove. The cover was on the floor nearby. 

 The stove-top had not entirely cooled when we reached the house. All 

 too reliable evidence as to the identity of the intruder was to be found 

 in the droppings deposited on stove and floor. 



After this experience, our precautions were more rigorous, yet this 

 bird, on one occasion thereafter, got inside the room, but we were present 

 and nothing happened. 



Picolaptes affinis neglectus. — This is one of the commonest Tree- 

 Creepers (Dendrocolaptidae) over the wooded uplands of Costa Rica. The 

 individuals of the species that came under attention here were found 

 on the south slope of the Volcano Irazu, at about 10,000 ft. altitude, 

 while camping there during May, 1920. A pair of birds were seen on the 

 11th, both working up the trunk of a large tree that grew in a heavily 

 wooded ravine. Owing to this latter fact, I was as near as twenty-five 

 feet of their position, before I observed them. I recognized the species 

 at once; also noting the abbreviated tail on both, a condition that seemed 

 to much impede their progress in climbing. I secured the cf of this 

 pair. Then it was that I observed that the rectices, except the middle 

 pair that were replaced by fresh ones, very short and mostly in the sheath, 

 had suffered severance, about one inch from their base, by some sharp 

 instrument, and not by reason of wear, because the shafts all showed 

 fresh cleavage, and no fraying. Moreover, this trimming was perfectly 

 regular, and of the form of an inverted V. The operation therefore 

 must have been performed with bill by the bird itself. The fact that 

 this mutilation of the tail was seen in both birds, before I had shot, 

 eliminated the possibility of that source for a solution; aside from the 

 seeming impossibility of shot trimming the feathers, as hasbeen described. 



Gymnostinops montezumae. — While staying at Juan Vifias, I came 

 across many nesting colonies of this Oropendola, and with the assistance 

 of my wife and a native boy, a small colony of some thirty nests was 

 inspected about April 1, 1920. These nests were hung on a medium- 

 sized Guava tree that stood at least one hundred feet from any other 

 tree. Three limbs were sawed off: one supported seven nests, one 

 three, and one but two. During this operation most of the individuals 

 oi' this colony gathered in the nearest available tree, and kept up a great 

 clatter, until a hawk (Leptodon uncinatus) made an unsuccessful dash 



