' 1920 ] General Notes. 60o 



into them. This both dispersed and quieted them. Although all these 

 nests were completed, even to the abundant supply of fresh leaves, that new 

 nests always contain, no eggs had been laid. So the nests still attached 

 to their respective positions were left at the base of the nesting tree. 



A week later we chanced to return to the spot. The colony contained 

 about the original number of nests hung in the tree. On the ground 

 were the limbs in the place we had deposited them. But the only traces 

 of the nests that had been attached were some short strands so inex- 

 tricably woven about the leaves and their petioles that they defied un- 

 ravelling. 



Junco vulcani. — We were fortunate enough to meet with this snow- 

 bird in considerable numbers during our visit to the Volcano Irazu. Our 

 observations differed somewhat from those of previous observers inas- 

 much that we found them among the oak timber, as low as 10,000 ft. as 

 well as above the timber line. What 1 wish to record is the difference 

 in amount of plumage wear this species is subject to under varying degree 

 of humidity, at the same relative attitude and within an area of a few 

 square miles. 



As is well known, the south slope of the Volcano Irazu, although on 

 the Caribbean slope of the continental divide, lies in what is termed the 

 "shadow of the Volcano," and is thus deprived almost entirely, from 

 December to May, and to a considerable degree during the balance of 

 the year, of the perennial moisture carrying clouds that blow in from 

 the East and Northeast. About three miles to the east of the main crater 

 of the Volcano is a pass, through which a road passes that leads to the 

 Volcano Turrialba. As soon as this pass is reached, the rainfall and 

 humidity greatly increase and it is noticeable that pastures and herba- 

 ceous vegetation generally do not dry up in the winter and spring months 

 as they do south of Irazu. The demarcation line between the wet and 

 dry zones is but a couple of hundred feet wide at the pass. 



Such individuals of this Junco as were taken on the slope of Irazu were 

 all in very worn plumage, that could not be matched by a single speci- 

 men that came under observation taken at the pass or to the eastward. 

 For the most part these individuals from the humid zone were in com- 

 paratively fresh plumage, such as the species should wear at the begin- 

 ning of the nesting season, and from examination of the sexua! organs I 

 judged that the breeding season was near. While I saw no young of the 

 species during my stay (May 3 to 19, 1920) I did shoot a female on the 10th, 

 within the dry zone, carrying a crane-fly (Tipula) in her bill; and an- 

 other female was taken on the 6th, while I was making the trip to the 

 crater that had her bill full of dried grass stems. — Austin Paul Smith, 

 Cartago, Costa Rica. 



Observation of a Remarkable Night Migration. — A flock of birds, 

 present in such numbers that they were continually passing across the 

 field of the theodolite telescope, were noticed in the course of following 



