^"'y^^^J General Notes. I g i 



brought back, and are now in tlie collection of the University'. The 

 heads are male and female of tiie well-known eastern species, Zamelodia 

 ludoviciana. How they came here is unknown. The farmer upon whose 

 place the specimens were found declared thej were quite common about 

 his orchard in spring and did considerable damage to cherries and other 

 fruit, lie has promised to send specimens to Dr. (Gilbert this spring. — 

 Robert B. McLain, Stanford University, Cal. 



The Philadelphia Vireo i^Vireo philadelphicus). — I read with mucli 

 interest the article on the Philadelphia Vireo bj Dr. Jonathan Dwight, 

 Jr., published recently in 'The Auk' (Vol. XIV, No. 3). It may interest 

 many who have perused that article to know that I met with a pair of 

 these birds and secured their nest within a short distance of Lansdowne 

 Station, Ontario. This happened in June, 1895. I had never met with 

 the species before, but knew of it as being an occasional summer visitant 

 to the vicinity of Ottaw-a, Ont. The place where I met with the birds 

 was a rough pasture with here and there a clump of young poplar trees 

 on the drier ground, elsewhere there were wet boggy places of small 

 extent -grown up with alders, an occasional tamarack, and a great deal of 

 the well known plant, Spircea salisifolia ; some of this latter growing to 

 the unusual height of four or even five feet. It was in a spray of the 

 latter that I discovered the nest on the 14th of June, 1895. In it were 

 two Cowbird's eggs, and one of the Vireo's. I removed the ^'ireo's egg 

 and one of the Cowbird's, which had the effect of causing the birds 

 to desert, for I visited the place a few days later and saw nothing of 

 them. 



With regard to the nest (which I gave to Professor Jno. McCoun of 

 Ottawa), it was scarcely so finished a sti-ucture as is the Red-eyed Vireo's. 

 The outside was a little ragged, a few stalks of dried grass protruding. 

 Though pensile, it was not so carefully finished off; the straggling 

 nature of the shrub perhaps preventing this. A quantity of spider's 

 webs, etc., completed the structure. 



With regard to the egg, it was marked exactly like that of the Red-eye, 

 Vireo but was smaller, and according to its size was rather more globular 

 in shape. 



My observation of the birds and their location agreed very nearly with 

 Dr. Dwight's experience, and had he searched and watched the place per- 

 sistently where on the loth July, 1893, he noticed what he took to be a 

 female scolding and ruffling her feathers, he would probably have 

 found the nest. I was attracted to the nest I found by the anxiety of the 

 birds ; they scolded and were quite tame. I have not noticed the Red- 

 e^'e act thus. They hopped from branch to branch of the neighboring 

 alders incessantly; there were no high trees near by- I observed them 

 through strong field glasses, and in describing the birds should say that 



