Io2 General Azotes. 



The nest is rather a large striictiire, between nine and ten inches in 

 diameter and five inches deep. The cavity is slightly oval, measuring 

 three and six-tenths by three and two-tenths, and is two inches deep. 



The bottom is formed of large pieces of rotten wood, which must have 

 been torn from some neighboring stump, while the sides are supported by a 

 scraggy structure of long twigs. The walls are formed of strips of bark and 

 the subjacent rotte.i wood, apparently of cedars, cocoons, the remains of 

 wasp nests, lichens and the like. All this material is closely packed to- 

 gether, but not woven, so that were it not for the outer coat of twigs the 

 whole would quickly fall apart. On one side, snarled up among the twigs, 

 is a long piece of white twine, which shows that the neighboring camp 

 was called upon to pay its tribute. The lining is quite thick, and offers a 

 decided contrast to the walls. Rootlets of various kinds form the greater 

 part, though grass and the remains of wasp nests form the floor. A few 

 feathers are scattered throughout the structure and about as many more 

 are to be found inside. By far the greater part of these are from the Jays 

 themselves, and they might be regarded as of accidental occurrence were it 

 not for a few from some species of Grouse. As a whole the nest is a sub- 

 stantial structure, admirably adapted to keep the eggs and nestlings warm. 



The eggs were three in number, and are of about the same size and form 

 as those of the Blue Jay. Their ground color is a light green of much the 

 same color as the Field Sparrow's egg. Two of the eggs are thickly cov- 

 ered with fine spots of lavender and light brown, the spots being most 

 abundant at the large end. The third has less lavender and more brown, 

 while the spots are of considerable size and evenlv distributed. — J. Amory 

 Jeffries. Bosfo7i, Mass. 



Notes on the Plumage of Nephcecetes niger borealis. — An 

 examination often birds of this species, taken at Howardsville, Colorado, 

 in 1880 and 1881, leads me to believe that four years are necessary for them 

 to acquire their complete plumage. A young male of the year, taken 

 Sept. 17, was marked as follows. General color dull black, every feather 

 tipped with white, scarcely appreciable on upper back and throat, broader 

 on upper tail coverts and rump. Crissum almost pure white. In birds of 

 the second year the general plumage has a brownish cast; feathers of back 

 tipped with brown, the head whitish, belly feathers yet broadly tipped 

 with white. The third year the color is black, with a very faint edging of 

 white on under tail coverts. In the fourth year pure black, forehead hoary, 

 neck with a brownish wash. Feathers bordering the black loral crescent 

 whitish. 



Tail in young of first year, rounded: in second year, slightly' rounded: 

 in third year slightly emarginate, feathers becoming more acute. In adult, 

 forked, outer feathers three-eighths of an inch longer than inner. 



I do not know when they come — some time late in June — but they re- 

 main until long after the Violet-green Swallows leave. They always 

 hunt in flocks, range far above 13,000 feet and breed up to at least 11, 000 feet. 

 Those I have shot have had their crops filled with Ephcmoidtv. and it 



