V %f l ~\ General Notes. 2$$ 



The Bobolink on the Coast of South Carolina. — I regrel the misappre- 

 hension of my meaning that led to the criticism in the last number of 

 'The Auk,' p. 179, and the possible inference that I am careless as to my 

 statement of facts. I intended simply to say thai the Bobolink in the 

 interior of the State (Chester County) was abundant only in the spring. 

 It did not occur to me that the expression would be interpreted differently, 

 as abundance on the South Carolina coast, in the northward as well as 

 the southward migration, belongs to the common stock of ornithological 

 knowledge of which 1 could hardly he supposed to be ignorant. — 

 Leverett M. Loomis, Tryen, N. C. 



An Ingenious Pair of House Finches {Carpodacus frontalis) — It is 

 generally believed that birds construct their nests year after year and 

 generation after generation after the same plan. There are lew 

 ohservers, however, whose experience does not furnish illustrations of 

 the fact that individual birds arc capable of departing from the nest 

 building methods acquired by inheritance, anil of resorting to new and 

 ingenious expedients. The following is a case in point, and I am much 

 mistaken if the reader does not conclude that the nest-huilders in question 

 possessed a considerable degree of reasoning power as well as of ingenuity. 



A pair pf California House Finches (Carpodacus frontalis) built a 

 nest in the corner of the piazza of a country store. So tame and confiding 

 have these pretty Finches become thai I am persuaded that the larger 

 proportion of their nests are built , not in trees and hushes as formerly, 

 but in all sorts of odd nooks and crannies about the house and barn ; and 

 even when they are compelled by Ihc lack of facilities to resort to bushes 

 and shrubbery, they choose those as close to the house as possible. 



The pertinacity with which tin? House Finch clings to a chosen nook 

 about a house when their nests are destroyed is amazing, and is equalled 

 only by the English Sparrow. I have known live nests with their con- 

 tents to be destroyed one after another, and each time the same pair set to 

 work with apparent unconcern to build anew. 



But to return to my nest. The proprietor oi the store called attention 

 to it, suggesting that if it was of any use to me I had better lake it as he 

 was about to destroy it for the reason that, the finches were an unmitigated 

 pest in the orchard. This statement, 1 grieve to say, there is too much 

 reason to believe is true. And great is the pity, for ils beautiful song, 

 domestic habits, and pretty plumage give it a place occupied by no other 

 American bird. 



Viewed from below, the nest was seen to he balanced rather than firmly 

 placed upon a narrow joist, and I was at a loss to comprehend how it was 

 maintained there even in calm weather, to say nothing of the high winds 

 that prevail in this locality. By means of a Step-ladder 1 was soon able 

 to solve the problem. Having about one-half finished the structure, the 

 birds evidently recognized the insecurity of its position, and the location 

 being in every other respect eligible they hit upon the following remedy. 



