1 82 General Notes. 



the feast with various acts of courtship, and then flew oft", each with a leaf 

 or part of one in the heak. The same act was repeated during the day and on 

 succeeding days until the trees were nearly as hare of leaves as in winter. 

 As in the former year, a second set of leaves appeared and though the 

 trees received a check in their growth, the}' recovered, increased in size 

 and ripened their wood in due season. A similar deslruction of leaves 

 was performed by the same species of bird — probably the same pair — in 

 1SS0, and the trees recovered their wonted vigor by repeating the process 

 of preceding years. The second set of leaves were not eaten by the birds 

 in either year, though they were in the garden more or less every day 

 during the summer and frequently alighted in the trees, separately, to- 

 gether, and with their young. 



I had formerly considered the Icterus baltimorei essentially insectivorous 

 and frugivorous; I am now aware that some of them at least are decidedlj 

 vegetarian once in the year. — Elisha Slade, Somerset. Mass. 



A Peculiar Nest of the Baltimore Oriole. — When the leaves fell in 

 the autumn of 1S76, I discovered a bird's nest suspended from a slender 

 limb of a cotton-wood that stands, with others, on the outskirts of Charles 

 City, (Iowa). This nest immediately attracted my attention, and I made 

 several attempts to secure it, but was unsuccessful, as it hung near the 

 end of a limb too slender to bear my weight. 



It hung there throughout the following winter, but in the spring of 1S77 

 a young friend of lighter weight than myself obtained it and gave it to 

 me. It is, unmistakably, the nest of a Baltimore Oriole, — the material 

 used in its construction and the manner in which it is woven plainly show 

 this; but it differs very materially in shape from any other nest of the 

 species that I have ever seen. 



The length of the nest is eleven inches ; greatest diameter, four inches. 

 Body of nest, an upright cone about eight inches in height, with a rounded 

 base. It is composed of the ordinary material : " natural strings of the 

 flax of the silk-weed," horse-hair, etc. At its apex, several pieces of 

 twine are woven into the fabric, and, about three inches above, are 

 securely fastened to a horizontal twig, all at the same point, forming the 

 sole support of the nest. The opening for entrance is in the side of the 

 nest, at the point of its greatest diameter, about three inches from the 

 base. It is perfectly circular and about one inch in diameter. — Henry S. 

 Williams. Charles City, Floyd Co., la. 



The Three-toed Woodpecker (Picoides articus) in Massachusetts. 

 — Records of the occurrence of the Black-hacked Three-toed Woodpecker 

 in Massachusetts have multiplied so slowly that the following additional 

 one may be considered of interest: An adult male shot Dec. 17, 1SS0. at 

 Plymouth. Massachusetts. I saw the specimen at Goodale's when it was 

 being mounted for Mr. John A. Joyce, the person by whom it was killed. 

 William Brewster, Cambridge, Mass. 



