96 General Notes. an 
lowed out crannies and caves. In one of these latter, which penetrated 
the granite wall to a depth of some twenty feet, I found four or five Barn 
Swallows’ nests, some containing young, and two, although it was so 
late in the season (July 9, 1895), contained eggs. Others were to be found 
in neighboring crannies outside the cave. Another visit paid to this spot 
on August 10 of this year (1896) discovered one nest still occupied, which 
contained four eggs. Although breeding thus in a perfectly primitive 
state there was no important difference observed in the birds’ methods of 
construction. ‘The nests were either affixed to the vertical walls of the 
cavern or else rested slightly on rocky knobs and projections. The 
feathery linings of the nests consisted of copious collections of the 
feathers of wild fowl, such as Ducks, Grouse, etc. 
The only other place in Okanogan County where I recall having seen 
Barn Swallows was at Malott, some 60 miles distant, where the birds had 
adopted the manners of civilization and were breeding in a large barn.— 
WittiaAmM L. Dawson, Oberlin, Ohio. 
Characters of Dendroica cerulescens cairnsi. —Cairns’s Warbler is 
named by me as a new subspecies in the work entitled : ‘ Papers Presented 
to the World’s Congress on Ornithology,’ pub. Chicago, Nov. 8, 1896, p. 
138. It isa local race of the Black-throated Blue Warbler, breeding in the 
mountains of western North Carolina and eastern Tennessee, where the 
individuals arrive a week or ten days in advance of those that pass 
onward in their migration, and may be observed building and rearing 
their young while the migration in the same region is still going on. At 
the time I named the subspecies I had seen no specimens, but was satis- 
fied that the bird could not have thus been localized for many generations 
without developing distinctive characteristics. At the recent meeting of 
the A. O. U. in Cambridge, I examined several specimens in the cabinet 
of Mr. William Brewster, collected by the late Mr. Cairns, and was 
pleased to find my prescience in the case confirmed upon comparison with 
a large series of the ordinary form from many different localities. The 
examination was made in company with Mr. Brewster, Dr. Allen, Mr. 
Chapman and others, who were immediately persuaded of the subspecific 
validity of the new form; and the Committee on Classification and 
Nomenclature at once voted unanimously to accept it. The bird is some- 
what smaller than the average of D. cerulescens, and has the middle of 
the back nearly or quite black, instead of blue, or blue with only a few 
black touches. Some specimens in the large series were fortunately found 
to be intermediate, showing intergradation with the typical form, and 
thus relieving me from the necessity of recognizing cazrus¢ as a full 
species. The diagnosis of the new subspecies may be given as: & Dz. 
cerulescenti simillima, sed minor, dorsogue medio nigro. It is dedicated to 
its discoverer and original describer, Mr. John S. Cairns, of Weaverville, 
N. C., whose lamented death was recently noticed in these pages, and 
whose interesting article upon the summer home and nidification of the 
