"^"■'sS^^] General Notes. 95 



shufeldti ot 1S87 is my coiinectens of 18S4, characterized in the ' Key' as 

 intermediate between ^j/e;«rt//.s- proper and oregonus proper, and as occupy- 

 ing a range betvv een the habitats of the two forms as now restricted — 

 that is, the interior region at large, and especially the Rocky Mountain 

 region. I remember characterizing this form hypothetically some twelve 

 or fifteen years ago, at which time I picked out type-specimens from a lot 

 of Juncos which I examined in the South Tower of the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, in the pi-esence of Mr. Brewster, Dr. Allen, Mr. Ridgway and 

 others; these type specimens belonged to Mr. Brewster's collection and 

 one of them has just now been identified by the A. O. U. Committee with 

 ■ what we have been calling skufeldti. Thus the case is perfectly clear, and 

 the subspecies rests securely upon the diagnosis given in the ' Key ' in 

 1884. The requisite rectification of synonymy will be made in the next 

 supplement to the last edition of our Check-List. I only regret that I 

 have been so dilatory in bringing the case up. — Elliott Coues, Wash- 

 ington, D. C. 



Spiza americana near Kingston, New York. — The familiar song of this 

 species attracted my attention as I was driving a few miles from Kingston 

 on June 5, 1896. The bird proved to be a full-plumaged male, but I was 

 unable to secure him at the time or to return later to the same spot. The 

 occurrence, however, of the species in the Hudson River Valley seems 

 worthy of special mention. — Jonathan D wight, Jr., M. D., iVer:/ YorA 

 City. 



Correct Nomenclature of the Texas Cardrnal. — Having very recently, 

 for the first time, seen the original description of Cardinalis sinuatus 

 Bonaparte, I was mucii surprised to find the locality given as " the 

 western parts of Mexico." The name simiatus belongs, therefore, in a 

 restricted sense, to the form which I characterized, in 1887, as Pyrrhuloxia 

 sinuata beckhami, under the erroneous supposition that Bonaparte's bird 

 was the eastern form ; consequently, the latter requires a subspecific 

 name ; and, being known in the vernacular as the Texas Cardinal, I pro- 

 pose for No. 594 of the Check-List the name Pyrrhuloxia sinuata texana. 

 No. 594''. being the true/', sinuata. — Robert Ridgway, Washington, 

 D. C. 



Natural Breeding Haunts of the Barn Swallow (Chelidon erythrogaster). 

 — The Barn Swallow is such a familiar tenant of our barns and out- 

 houses that it may not have occurred to many to wonder where they 

 nested before man provided them with such resorts. During the summer 

 of 1895, while visiting the headwaters of Lake Chelan, in Washington, 

 I found the Swallows at home. The shores of the lake near its head are 

 very precipitous, since the mountains rise here some 7,000 feet above the 

 surface of the water. Along the shore line, in the side of the cliffs, 

 which continue several hundred feet below the water, the waves have hoi- 



