8i General Notes. \^^^ 



might be distant, us I did not know the country, this being my first trip 

 through it. 



The extreme drouth of the past season is destroying great numbers of 

 cattle and horses in many parts of California and food for Vultures is 

 therefore abundant. Bitter experience has increased the natural wariness 

 of the species and now it is by a fortunate accident if the collector obtains 

 a specimen. Unless an epidemic or some other disaster overtakes the 

 species its extermination will not occur in our day. — F. Stephens, 

 Witch Creek, San Dies^o Co., Cat. 



Clark's Nutcracker in Eastern Missouri. — On the 15th of November 

 last (1894) I had occasion to drop into the establishment of a prominent 

 taxidermist, who handed me a bird to identify which proved a fine adult 

 specimen of Picicorvus columbiauus, Clark's Nutcracker, an extreme 

 western species, never known to have been seen in this locality before. 

 The specimen in question had been killed about four miles east of this 

 city (Kansas City, Mo.) by a party while hunting in what is known as 

 Big Blue bottom, formerly a heavil}' timbered district, though consider- 

 ably thinned out now. The taxidermist was not positive as to the date of 

 capture, but thought it was Oct. 28, or thereabout. He asked the gentle- 

 man who brought the specimen to him if any others like it were observed 

 and he stated none others had been seen. Unfortunately he did not take 

 the gentleman's name and address, so I had no opportunity of inter- 

 viewing him personally. Prof. Dixon, the taxidermist, says he will 

 mount this specimen, and probably send it to the State University at 

 Columbia, Mo. 



There was also brought into this same establishment a splendid spec- 

 imen of the Acadian Owl {Nyctala acadica), killed by flying against a 

 plate glass window on Broadway Avenue, this cit}', and picked up by a 

 passer-by and brought in to be mounted. This is the second specimen of 

 this diminutive species of the Owl family which had corhe into his hands 

 from this immediate locality. — John A. Bryant, 1221 Olive St., Kansas 

 City, Mo. 



Chats reared by Song Sparrows. — On June 8, 1894, while collecting 

 about three miles north of Poughkeepsie, Dutchess Co., N. Y., I found a 

 nest of the Chat {Icteria virens) containing a set of four eggs. They 

 were packed away with some others I had collected and taken home, but 

 on attempting to blow one I found that they ^vere heavily incubated, the 

 cmbyro being so large that it would have been impossible to remove it. 

 In a small hedge near the house at which I was staying was a nest of the 

 Song Sparrow (il/(?/05/;z« /«5c/«i('rt') containing a set of four very pretty 

 *eggs, but I did not like to rob the bird, as it was quite tame, and I had 

 watched the building of the nest with a good deal of interest; so I 

 thought of a scheme by which I could obtain the set and still give Melos- 



