General Notes. 57 



shot another, the rest rose high in the air and. with an irregular, undula- 

 ting flight, disappeared. My specimens proved to be in good plumage. 



I subsequently saw two more in a barn-yard some four miles from the 

 first locality. I was informed that they had been frequently seen there- 

 abouts of late, but the natives were unable to identify them. I shot one 

 of them, — a fine male, whose upper tail-coverts were of an unusually bril- 

 liant red. I find entered in my notebook that on August 13 I saw two 

 more while on a deer hunt fourteen miles from the other places. Of 

 course, under the circumstances, I was unable to shoot them. This would 

 seem to show that the first flock was not an accidental occurrence. 



The Tennessee Plateau is a comparatively level section of country about 

 one hundred miles long and forty miles wide, with an average elevation of 

 two thousand feet above the adjacent region. Its forests consist almost 

 entirely of white oaks, interspersed with chestnuts, and occasionally a 

 pine. This, with the above statements, indicate that the habits of my 

 birds differ materially from those of others of this erratic species. 



In respect to external characters. Mr. J. A. Allen, after having compared 

 my birds with a large series of New England specimens and with examples 

 of var. mcxicana from Colorado, writes me that the Tennessee specimens 

 present no essential difference in average measurement, but that the bill is 

 considerably larger than in average New England examples, but much 

 smaller than that of mexicana. The plumage of the males is much 

 brighter than in northern specimens. The Tennessee birds he regards as 

 almost exactly intermediate between the Red Crossbills of Northern New 

 England and those of Colorado. — G. S. Smith. Boston. Mass. 



Description of the nest and eggs of Coturniculus henslowi 

 obtained near Falls Church. Va. — Nest rather rude and irregularly 

 shaped, composed externally of coarse grass, lined with exceedingly fine 

 grass-tops circularly disposed and well finished but without any horse- 

 hair; no other material than grass was used in its construction. The nest 

 is about four inches in diameter, about two inches in height, and 

 two inches inside diameter; it was placed in the center of a large 

 clump of wild clover (Tri folium agrarium) and rested directly on the 

 ground without any appearance of a cavity. The clover had grown up 

 about a foot or more in height and completely surrounded the nest, which 

 was only discovered by parting it. The female was secured as she flew 

 from the nest. The eggs, four in number, are much blotched and speckled 

 all over with a mixture of madder-brown and sepia, the color becoming 

 more confluent on the larger end ; there are also a few dashes and dots of 

 very dark sepia, almost black, scattered among the spots. One of the 

 eggs has a number of large blotches of a lighter tint than the spots 

 scattered all over it so as to almost form a ground tint for the spots. The 

 ground color is a delicate greenish-white. The measurements, in hun- 

 dredths of inches, are as follows: .75 x .60, .75 x .5S, 75 x .^6, .7^ x .60. 

 These eggs, taken June 3, contained large embryos within four or five days 

 of hatching. As I took full-fledged young last year on the 12th of July, 

 thev undoubtedly raise two broods in a season. 



