280 General Notes. [July 
It may interest the readers of ‘The Auk’ to hear of the occurrence of 
the Towhee (Piplo erythrophthalmus), female, at Ann Arbor, in the lat- 
ter part of December, and again in the early part of March, a foot of 
snow being on the ground at the latter date. 
A small flock of Purple Finches (Carfodacus purpureus) was seen on 
May 24, and a number of individuals secured. It is considered a rare bird 
in that locality. 
Last spring also, I had brought to me for examination an egg of a com- 
mon fowl about four inches in its long diameter, and the short diameter 
nearly equal to four inches. The shell was of average thickness, shell 
membranes normal. This egg not only contained white and yolk, but 
also a second egg of the tsual size, with shell, membranes, and contents 
perfect. The shell of the inclosed egg was extremely thick, An inter- 
pretation of this phenomenon is easy enough; the smaller, normal-sized 
egg was evidently detained in the oviduct when just about to be laid, and 
then, having worked back to the region of the oviduct where the shell 
membrane is formed, met the descending yolk and white of the larger 
egg. A membrane was then deposited, not only around this secoud egg, 
but also around the the first formed perfect egg; then both descended the 
oviduct, a shell was formed about them ‘both, and the resulting ‘ double 
ego’ expelled. The failure to lay the first egg may have been due to some 
temporary weakness of the muscles employed.—F. L. WASHBURN, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 
Polioptila plumbea at Palm Springs, California.—During the latter part 
of April I spent a week collecting at Palm Springs in company with Mr. 
W. W. Price, and together we secured eight specimens of Polioptila plum- 
bea, the first taken west of the Colorado River, I believe. Palm Springs 
is situated in the extreme western end of the Colorado Desert, about 
midway between the coast and the Colorado River, seven miles south of 
Seven Palms, a station on the Southern Pacific Railroad, and about seventy 
miles from San Bernardino. PP. flumbea were found in a dry sandy wash 
near the settlement, in the tangled thickets of the creosote brush (Larrea 
mexicana). They undoubtedly breed there, as two young scarcely able 
to fly were secured, and others seen. Three males had the black cap fully 
developed. 
Harporhynchus lecontez and Callipepla gambeli were found with young, 
but very shy.—F RED. O. JoHnson, /7verside, California. 
Winter Notes from Portland, Maine. — The exceptionally mild winter 
of 1888-89 was not without its effect on the birds about Portland. During 
the fall migration a great many of the Sparrows and Warblers prolonged 
their stay a week or ten days, or even longer, beyond their usual date. 
A noteworthy case was that Dexdrotca coronata which remained. until 
December 6. There appears to be no previous December record of this 
