IIo BENDIRE on the Habits of the Genus Passerella. { April 
specimens of this form, collected by me there, are now in the 
collection of the National Museum at Washington, D.C. I have 
taken it in the fall as early as Sept. 2, and as late as Nov. 15, 
1882. None seem to winterthere. In the spring of 1883 I took 
specimens as early as March 19, before the snow had all disap- 
peared. They seem to travel in small companies, seldom more 
than six would be seen together, and it was rare to see them 
associate with other species. “They were usually found in dark, 
damp thickets, laurel and evergreen especially, near streams, 
where they might be heard industriously scratching amongst the 
dead leaves in search of food. ‘They are essentially terrestrial in 
their habits, and not particularly shy. Their usual call note is a 
faint szzp several times repeated. They are not as good song- 
sters as either P. z/zaca or P. tliaca megarhyncha, and about on 
a par with P. 2/Zaca schistacea in this respect. In their summer 
homes they may possibly appear to better advantage. 
The credit of the discovery of the nest and eggs of this sub- 
species belongs, I believe, to Mr. Alphonse Forrer, a well- 
known California naturalist, who obtained three sets of their 
eggs for me at Seewash, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, on 
May 14 and 24, 1876, and June 7, 1877. A nest and three eggs 
of this species were also taken by Mr. E. W. Nelson, at St. 
Michaels, Alaska, June 5, 1880, and a nest and two eggs by 
Mr. W. J. Fisher, at Kadiak, Alaska, in the spring of 1883. 
The nest taken by Mr. Nelson, now before me, No. 21,351, 
U.S. National Museum collection, is a handsome, compact, and 
solid structure, composed outwardly principally of moss, 
leaves, and plant fibres, well woven and incorporated together ; it 
is lined with fine bits of dry grasses and the black hair-like fibres 
of a species of hypnum moss. Its exterior diameter is about 
five inches ; depth, three inches ; interior diameter, two and a quar- 
ter inches ; depth, two inches. Their nest is usually placed in dense 
undergrowth and laurel thickets from six inches to one and a half 
feet from the ground, always well concealed and at no great dis- 
tance from water. ‘lhe number of eggs to a set is from three to 
four. Their ground color varies from a faint greenish gray to 
pale bluish green, a trifle more pronounced than in eggs of P. 
tliaca. This is due possibly, however, to their cleaner and better 
preparation and more recent collection. ‘The eggs are blotched 
and speckled with irregularly shaped markings of vandyke and 
