Vol. XIV 
“he General Notes. 407 
August, 1895, and exhibits the autumnal plumage nearly completed. All 
these individuals were collected either in the northeastern part of the 
District of Columbia, or in the adjacent parts of southern Maryland. Of 
the seven red males in the seriestaken at random from April 18, 1896, to 
July 15, only one of them shows the full and completed plumage, and 
that the one shot on the first-mentioned date. All of the others present 
more or less green in the wings and tail, and one with a greenish patch 
on the throat. A specimen, an old male, shot on the 15th of July, 1896, has 
both the plumage of the entire body and tail red, while the secondaries 
and primaries of the wings are in the process of the moult,—the new 
feathers likewise coming in red,— the same applying to the wing-coverts. 
This tends to prove; in so far at least as this particular specimen is con- 
cerned, that in the male of this species in the autumnal moult they 
reassume the red plumage. Another specimen, which Itake to be a young 
male of the first spring, and shot on May 14, 1897, has the body plumage 
red, with red and green wings, but the tail exactly half red and half green, 
—the green feathers or the left half of the tail being half a centimeter 
shorter than the red ones. All these feathers are new, with the exception 
of one of the green ones, and it is found next to the outermost one of 
that side. Now the first plumage taken on by both sexes of this species 
after leaving the nest is the olive-green plumage corresponding to that of 
the normal adult females, and in that plumage the birds of the year 
migrate south in the autumn. So that the aforesaid specimen shot on 
May 14, possibly met with an accident, losing all the feathers of the left 
side of the tail with the exception of the one mentioned, and these being 
replaced came in greex. This seems to be the only explanation to account 
for the state of affairs seen in this individual. 
In another specimen of this series, a young male of the first autumn 
in the full green plumage, shows a broadish transverse red bar across the 
green and perfected feathers of the tail. 
Perhaps the most interesting specimen in the collection is that of a 
female (adult) which in the spring had, in part, the red plumage of the 
male, and when collected on the 2d of August, 1897, was in full moult,— 
the red feathers of the entire plumage being replaced by the green ones 
of the adult female bird with normal coloration. This particular example 
then, would tend to show that when the females of this species assume 
in the spring the red plumage of the males, that in the autumnal moult 
they pass back again to the plumage of the normally-colored females,— 
whereas the o/d males reassume the red plumage.—R. W. SHUFELDT, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. 
Purple Martins (Progue subis) Breeding in Electric Arc-light Caps. — 
During a recent visit to Vergennes, Vt., I noticed that many pairs of 
Purple Martins were nesting in the caps suspended over the electric 
street lamps in the heart of that rural city. Indications of the same pro- 
clivity to utilize the street lamps for domestic purposes were shown by 
