Vol. XVII 
1900 
General Notes. 299 
naturalist,in a private letter speaks about the rural bird life of his locality 
as follows: 
‘*The Canario of the Brazilians, Sycal’s floveola Pelz., is found in this 
State. Right near Sao Paulo it is rare. Indeed nearly all the birds are 
killed by the Italians, who use them as food, and it is difficult to finda 
dozen species near the city. In the country, however, and especially 
about the farms and buildings the Canario is quite common. 
The twocommonest birds about Sao Paulo are Troglodytes furvus Wied 
(Curruira), and Zonotrichia pileata Pelz. (Tico-tico). On the farms one 
also finds Sycal’s faveola, Turdus leucomelas Vieill. (Sabia), Mimus spec., 
Milvulus tyrannus (L.) (Tesoura), Prtangus sulphuratus (L.) (Bemtevi), 
usually one or two Woodpeckers, occasionally a Tucano, and often 
several species of Paroquets and Parrots, such as Pszttacula Passertna 
(L.), the Tuim; Brotogerys tirica (Gm.), the Periquito; Pzonus maxt- 
miliant (Kuhl.), the Maitacca. 
“A person who is accustomed to the variety of bird forms in the north- 
ern woods is struck with the absence of birds in the Brazilian forest, and 
yet many birds abound, for over five hundred species are recorded from 
the State of Sao Paulo alone. But the birds seem to be more solitary 
here. They do not sing and chatter at daybreak as they do in the 
United States. I have been in camp in the virgin forest, ten miles away 
from any house, and have not heard a note of a bird all day. One bird, 
however, the Tangara, Chtroxifhta caudata (Shaw), a beautiful small 
bird of blue plumage and red head, will congregate in numbers, especially 
during the mating season, and sing and hop and dance for hours ata 
time. I have often enjoyed watching them and listening to their songs.” 
— H. NEHRLING, Milwaukee, Wisc. 
Sanitary Habits of Birds.—I read, in the April Auk, Mr. F. H. Her- 
rick’s article on the sanitary habits of birds and was much pleased and 
profited by it. I was disappointed in one respect only —that was that 
it did not throw any confirmatory light upon a recent observation of my 
own which had puzzled me a little. 
Late last summer I was watching a pair of Baltimore Orioles feeding 
their young, when I saw the male take a soft white pellicle from the 
open and extended mouth of a nestling, and drop it some yards from 
the nest. 
This was new procedure to me, and I began at once to review the 
subject of feeding habits, as it was noted in my scant library, but I could 
find nothing about it. While I was about to doubt my own eyes (at 
thirty feet through a good opera glass) I received a letter from Mr. H. B. 
Rugg, of Vermont, saying that some friends of his had been watching 
some Robins as they fed their young, and had seen the parents take some 
round white substance from the throats of the nestlings; and they 
wanted him to tell them what this was. Then he wrote and asked me 
what it was. 
