^'''ig^f^^] General Notes. 251 



White Warblers (Mniotilta varia) by the actions of the old birds. A short 

 time after taking up my position a female Cowbird (Molothrus ater) came 

 flying through the trees and Ut but a short distance away. From time to 

 time I glanced at her to see what she was up to but was unable to see that 

 she had moved a muscle for some twenty minutes, for which time she re- 

 mained hunched up as if asleep. Then she flew straight to the nest of a 

 Red-eyed Vireo {Vireosylva olivacea) which though but ten feet from my 

 hiding place, was so well concealed that it had escaped my attention. After 

 remaining on the nest about two minutes she flew out of sight among the 

 trees. Upon investigation I found the nest to contain two eggs of the 

 rightful owner and one of the Cowbird. — A. Brazier Howell, Covina, Cal. 



Evening Grosbeak {Hesperiphona vespertina vespertina) at Boston, 

 Mass. — On December 29, 1913, while going through the Arnold Arboretum 

 looking for birds, a friend and I saw one which we took to be a female 

 Evening Grosbeak, although we failed to get a good view of it. The next 

 day I went alone to the same spot and found the bird feeding on the ground 

 near a hop-hornbeam tree. I approached slowly within two rods of it and 

 watched it for nearly half an hour. The markings were very distinct in 

 the bright sunshine and there was no doubt about its identity. I could 

 not make out whether it was feeding on grass and weed seeds or something 

 else. At length on the approach of a man from the opposite direction it 

 flew up into the hornbeam and from there to the big oak, where I left it. 

 I saw it again on January 1 and 2 and was told that it was seen in the same 

 spot December 31. That makes in all five successive days and would 

 seem to indicate that it intended to stay there for some time. — Edward H. 

 Atherton, Roxbury, Mass. 



The White-winged Crossbill (Loxia leucoptera) in the District of 

 Columbia. — Within the close of the rectory of Trinity Episcopal Church 

 at Takoma Park, D. C, are three scrub pines, Pinus virginiana, of medium 

 size, densely laden with cones. Two of these, one on each side of the walk 

 leading to the steps, extend their branches within ten feet of the front 

 porch where, alone, I was quietly sitting in a rocking chair about 3 p. m. 

 October 23, 1913, literally basking in the hospitable rays of the sun rapidly 

 declining after a bright but rather brisk, wintry day. I had been on 

 the porch but a few minutes when I discovered several birds assiduously 

 searching the cones in the further one of these two trees. Their movements 

 strangely suggested paroquets and were accentuated by plaintive notes 

 constantly emitted. They were White-winged Crossbills, eight in number. 

 They gradually worked their way to the tree directly in front of which I 

 was sitting, and ultimately reached the very ends of the branches within 

 ten feet of me. I followed their every movement for upwards of fifteen 

 minutes. They left the tree precipitately in a body. About three quarters 

 of an hour later I saw and heard them in a grove of larger pines two squares 

 distant. 



