Vai in3*] General N< 583 



feet. All this time the other parent remained possibly fifteen feet directly 

 over me, calling shrilly. In discovering this neat, as I entered the woods, 

 I saw one parent sitting about twenty feet from the nest. The other bird 

 left the nest when I rapped the tree with a small club. I did not climb at 

 once! but walked on through the woods, both birds following, approaching 

 closely, and calling frequently. 



Later on in the day in another woods I saw a nest at some distance. As 

 I approached, when possibly two hundred feet away, the parent slipped 

 from the nesl and flew silently and swiftly away. While climbing to this 

 nesl neither parent, bird was seen or heard. After I returned to the ground 

 they returned flying at a distance, at a great height and calling frequently. 



The behavior of these birds was in striking contrast to that of the first 

 pair, and it was the owners of the fresh eggs which were more aggressive. 



The owners of five other nests found later showed none of the aggressive- 

 ness exhibited by the first pair usually remaining at quite a distance. 



The aggressive pair built again and April 2'.) had a nest in a beech, one 

 In j iid led feet from the former site. One parent left the nest as I approached 

 and the Other flew away when I was possibly fifty feet from the tree. The 

 former bird remained near and several times flew within a few feet of me 

 with angry erics but did not attack me. — E. 15 WILLIAMSON, Bluffton, 

 I ndiana. 



Metallura vs. Laticauda. — In ' The Auk ' for January, 1902, page 92, 

 Dr. Charles W. Richmond proposed to replace Metallura Gould 1847, by 

 the earlier name Lalicauda Lesson 1843, and the latter has been adopted 

 in the recently published ' Birds of South America ' by Brabourne and 

 Chubb (Vol. I, page 137 ). 



Fortunately, however, this change is unnecessary as there is an earlier 

 Lalicauda published by Laurenti in 17G8 for a genus of serpents. Dr. 

 Stejneger writes me that this is a perfectly valid name, diagnosed and with 

 species. The genus of South American Hummingbirds will therefore re- 

 tain its long established name, Metallura. — W. DeW. Miller, American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City. 



Hummingbirds' Eyelashes. — An interesting fact was brought to 

 light while my friend Mr. H. Muller Pierce was examining some Humming- 

 birds in my collection. We were using a powerful magnifying glass and 

 looking at the brilliant metallic feathers on the throat, and the difference 

 in the shade of colors, as they appeared with and without the glass. Mr. 

 Pierce remarked "look at the eye lashes on this one!" With the naked 

 eye we could see only the tiny black rim of the eyelid about the Bize of a 

 pin head, but with the glass we found both upper and lower lids adorned 

 with a row of minute round fiat hers set at regular intervals, about twenty 

 in all. Upon further examination of over one hundred specie.-, from North, 

 Central and South America, we found these feathers were of two colors — 

 the majority being black, the others pale grayish brown. One exception 



