General Notes. 43 



as I am aware, unknown to the public. I have in my possession a nest 

 which with its eggs — then four in number — was taken by Mr. Ludovic 

 Kumlien in Shasta County, California, the female having been shot from 

 the nest. The eggs measure from .80 to .82 of an inch in length, and from 

 .64 to .67 in breadth. They are of a rounded oval shape, and are but 

 slightly more obtuse at one end than at the other. Their ground-color is 

 a light green, and is generally plainly visible, as the markings of reddish 

 and of golden-brown, with which the whole surface is pretty uniformly 

 flecked in small and well-distributed blotches, are nowhere numerous or 

 confluent. The eggs closely resemble very lightly marked specimens of 

 Zonotrichia albicollis, but are slightly smaller and more nearly spheroidal 

 in shape. 



The nest has an outer diameter'of five inches and a height of three. The 

 cavity is two and a half inches deep, with a diameter, at the rim, of the 

 same. Its outer portions and base are made of thin strips of bark, skele- 

 ton leaves, and coarse stalks and stems of plants, reeds, and Equisitacece. 

 It is very strongly and thoroughly lined with fine wiry rootlets of plants. 

 It was found, June 14, 1877, on the banks of the McCloud. — T, M. 

 Brewer, Boston, Mass, 



Note on Dendrceca domixica. — In an article upon Dendrceca do- 

 niinica, in the October number of the " Bulletin " I took occasion to express 

 serious doubts as to the correct identification of certain alleged nests of 

 that Warbler collected by Mr. N. C. Giles at Wilmington, N. C, and 

 upon which most of the recent descriptions of the nidification of the spe- 

 cies Avere based. My attention has since been called by Dr. Brewer to 

 his supplementary note in the Appendi.x of the " History of North Amer- 

 ican Birds " (Vol. Ill, p. 505), where further mention is made of Mr. Giles's 

 specimens, and he also informs me by letter that some of the specimens 

 recently sent to the Smithsonian Institution by Mr. Giles have been ac- 

 companied by skins of the parent birds, thus setting at rest all doubts 

 which he had previously entertained. I take this opportunity to express 

 my regret at having cast any doubts upon Mr. Giles's identification. — 

 W. Brewster. 



Eastward range of Chondestes grammaca. — On the morning of 

 the 27th of August I saw in the grounds of the Smithsonian Institution 

 a pair of the above-named Sparrows, the only ones I ever saw in the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia or vicinity. They were adults, and when first seen flew 

 up before me, expanding their white-tipped tails as they flew, and alighted 

 in the gravelly roadway about two rods in advance ; then ran along the 

 ground, Lark-like, as is the characteristic habit of the species, now and 

 then giving chase to a grasshopper, which they usually cai:)tured on the 

 wing. Although originally a western bird, this species seems to be stead- 

 ily extending its range to the eastward over those portions of the country 

 most denuded of timber. According to Dr. Wheaton (see Coues's " Birds of 



