^"'is??'^] General Notes. 2 1 7 



lliowii Creeper. Tiiie, it is itself .-uiteciated by C. riifa, Bartram, 1791 ; 

 but the present temper of tiie A. O. U. Committee throws Martrain out of 

 the case. — Elliott Coi'ks, W<is//inoton, D. C. 



The Roadrunner as a Destroyer of Caterpillars. — in soutiiern Cali- 

 fornia the passion vine is everywhere infested by a red butterfly {Ag-ranlis 

 vanilla;), the larva of which feeds extensively if not entirely upon this 

 plant. So great is the damage that plants are often completely defoliated 

 and become so unsiglitly that in some regions many have destroyed their 

 vines and replaced them with other species, less desirable perhaps but less 

 apt to breed a horde of pests. 



Not long since I called on a friend li\ ing in the subuihs of San Diego 

 wlio had a large number of unusually thrifty passion vines climbing over 

 his fence. Upon inquiring the reason of their freedom from what I had 

 considered an inevitable pest, he informed me tliat a pair of Roadrunners 

 (Geococcvx californfriis) had for several months ]iaid dail\- visits to his 

 vines, climbing thiougb tliem in all directions until the last caterpillar 

 had been captured. 



Me said that he was satislied that several newly hatched chickens had' 

 gone to satisfy hungry Roadrunners on one or two occasions when the 

 vines yielded less than usual, but they were welcome to a chick once in 

 a while for their very valuable service in keeping in check a pest that 

 none of oin* other native birds seem to feed upon. — A. W. Anthony, 

 San Diei;o, Cal. 



How the Chimney Swift secures Twigs for its Nest. — Among some of 

 the beautiful drawings of birds done by Mr. L. A. Fuertes, and submitted 

 to my approval by the Messrs. Macmillan of New York, with reference to 

 their publication in a work for which I am partly responsible, there was 

 one which I ' held up ' for further consideration. This represented a 

 Chimney Swift in the act of snapping off a bit of twig with its feet, like a 

 hawk seizing its prey. We have always supposed the bird secured the 

 object with its beak, as it dashed past on wing at full speed; oi- at any rate 

 that has been my own belief for more years than 1 can remember. But 

 Mr. Fuertes vouched for the correctness of his representation from actual 

 observation. The question being thus raised, I set it forth recently in a 

 query inserted in one of our popular periodicals,' asking for information. 

 I have received a number of replies, mostly corroborating the traditional 

 belief, on what purports to be sulTicient observation of the bird in the act. 

 But Mr. Fuertes is supported in his view by Mr. Frank J. Birtwell, of 

 Dorchester, Mass., from whose letter i (juole : " In 1S94 I spent the summer 

 at Yarmouth, No\a Scotia, where the Swift is common, nesting in unused 

 chimneys of the village. The bird Hies to a tree, usually a spruce, and 



•'The Nidologist ' for March, just to hand, contain.s (pp. 80, 81) several 

 replies to my inteirogatioii — and these leaye the case still open! 

 28 



