iS^,.] General Notes. 3^5 



collected by Mr. II. Keays tor Prof. H. V. Altwater, in Yavapai Co., 

 Vrizona Skins and nests accompanied both sets of eggs. 



Dendroica graciae. Nest placed on limb of pine tree sixty feet froni the 

 oround. Nest very compact; outside diameter 3 in. by ih m. high; 

 Tnside diameter i \ in. by i ', in. deep. The body of this nest >s com- 

 posed of horse-hair, strings and vegetable fibres. The most abundant 

 veo-etable material interwoven consists of the staminate catkins and bud 

 scales of ^uercus emoryt- There is also some wool, vegetable down, and 

 insect webbing, in which are entangled the exuviie of some caterpiHer. 

 Vttached on the outside was a small staminate cone of a species oi Pnuis. 

 Nest well lined with feathers and horse-hair. The three eggs were well in- 

 cubited. Their ground color is creamy white, marked over entire surface, 

 but more heavilv at larger end, where they form a wreath, with light 

 umber and an occasional speck of dark chestnut; lilac shell markings at 

 larger end only. Measurements, ..siX.70, .5oX.69- -.SoX.eS in. ; average, 

 .c;oX.69. Collected yune -3,1890. 



■ Contopus pertinax. The nest, placed on an oak limb twenty feet from 

 oround, is compact, and reminds one of the nest of our C. virens, except- 

 Tn- in size Outside diameter 5 in. by 1 in. high ; inside diameter 3 in. 

 bv^i in deep The bodv of the nest seems to consist of the web of some 

 spider intermingled with the exuvite of some insect, fragments of insects, 

 and ve-etable matter, such as staminate catkins of ^uercus emory, and a 

 pod o^HosacMa, some leaves of ^uercus emoryi ^^^A ^. undKlata. The 

 interior of the nest is made up of grasses, principally of two species of 

 Poa also some fragments of a BonteJona and a Stipa. The eggs, t.hiee 

 in number, were slightlv incubated. The ground color is creamy-buft, 

 spotted in a ring round larger end with chestnutand lilac-gray. Measure- 

 ments, .63X.86, .63X.83, .61X.83 in. ; average. .62X.S4. Collected June 17, 

 1890. I am greatly indebted to Messrs. Wm. Brewster of Cambridge 

 Mass. Tosiah Hoopes of West Chester, Pa., and John M. Holzinger of 

 Washington, D. C, for the identification of the above skins and nesting 

 „,.,tcriaK— Samuiu. B. Ladd, West Chester, Pa. 



A Female Piranga rubra Assuming the Plumage of the Male. On the 

 27th of Mav of the present year my son Percy W. Shufeldt collected at 

 l4koma Park, in Montgomery County. Maryland, a female Summer 

 Tanacer having a plumage so unusual that a record of it would seen, 

 wortln- of presentation. The species is by no means uncommon in the 

 locality where it was taken, and the specimen is apparently an adult, of sev- 

 eral years of age. In coloration her plumage about corresponds with that 

 of a Voung male of this species during the first summer, or an adult ema e 

 with^the following difterences ;-the plumage of the upper parts is thickly 

 interspersed with the dark red feathers which characterize the male, 

 and the plumage of the entire under parts is thickly beset with bright vei- 

 miUion-tinted feathers. Many of the secondaries of the wings are also 

 bri<^ht red, as is also the outer tail-feather of the left side. I personally 

 exa"inined the sex of this specimen on dissection, and found her ovary to 



