° '1919 j General Notes. 591 



these nests were typical, and were located in low land in the immediate 

 vicinity of Allenhurst. 



40. Polioptila caerulea cserulea. Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher. — 

 The nest of the Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher is among the handsomest speci- 

 mens of bird architecture. No other species of bird nesting in the south, 

 not even excepting the Hummingbird, constructs a home of such exquisite 

 proportions and beautiful workmanship. This species is locally distributed 

 in the county, being confined principally to heavily timbered swamps, and 

 as a rule nests at considerable heights. On May 3, after long search, 

 I located a nest in a large gum growing in water and in the center of a dense 

 swamp near Allenhurst. It was placed at a height of thirty-two feet, and 

 contained five fresh eggs. Another nest, noted June 22, twenty-three feet 

 high in an ash tree on the edge of the same swamp, contained four appar- 

 ently heavily incubated eggs. Both nests were saddled on horizontal 

 limbs, and were composed of fine, hair-like rootlets and dried grasses inter- 

 woven with plant down, lined with small feathers. They were deeply 

 cupped, shaped like a high cone, and had the entire exterior ornamented 

 with lichens. 



41. Sialia sialis sialis. Bluebird. — The Bluebird is decidedly a 

 woodland species throughout the county, and is only occasionally seen 

 about populated places, at least during the breeding season. The many 

 burnt-out districts and cut-over lands, in which are numerous stumps and 

 dead trees, afford the bird ideal nesting sites. As a result of these favor- 

 able conditions, Bluebirds are abundant in the county. The birds begin 

 nesting early, as I have noted full sets of eggs on April 2, Other dates are 

 April 17, four fresh eggs; April 25, four well-feathered young; May 1, four 

 fresh eggs, and May 18, five eggs. Four eggs comprise the usual clutch, 

 although sets of five are not rare. I have found the nest of this species 

 placed in a slight depression on top of a low stump, although it is rare that 

 deviations from the birds' habit of nesting in holes in stumps excavated by 

 woodpeckers are noted. The nests examined by me were constructed 

 entirely of grasses and rootlets, lined with a few feathers, the material 

 evidently having been hurriedly placed in the hole selected. These nests 

 were in deserted woodpecker holes at heights varying from three to ten 

 feet. — W. J. Erichson, Savannah, Ga. 



Data on the Age of Birds. November 8, 1919, will mark the twentieth 

 anniversary of the formal opening of the New York Zoological Park. In 

 an article in the ' Zoological Society Bulletin ' for May, 1919, on ' Our 

 Oldest Specimens,' Raymond L. Ditmars states (p. 61), " No specimen of 

 the bird collection has survived the Park's opening day, although there is 

 a Griffon Vulture living in the collection that has been on exhibition nearly 

 seventeen years, and several of our pelicans have been with us for a period 

 slightly over sixteen years." In this connection it is interesting to recall 

 an article ' On the Comparative Ages to which Birds Live,' by J. H. Gurney, 



