November, 1881.] 



AND OOLOGIST. 



67 



Notes from Denver, Colorado. 



June issue, number four, of your journal 

 came yesterday. I was somewhat amused 

 at your criticism on "Gentry's Birds, Nests 

 and Eggs of the United States," for I had 

 just received an epistle from the Hon. J. A. 

 Wagensellar telling me how his finer feelings 

 were hurt on account of my growling about 

 the text of his publication. For my part 

 I do not see anything unjust in your criti- 

 cism. I '.loticed an article by J. F. Rath- 

 bun, o\ Auburn, N. Y., concerning the 

 Yellow-bellied Wood-pecker {S. varii/s) 

 In reply to his query I would say thai I 

 took several sets of eggs of that bird while 

 I was in Oswego, N. Y. In 1877 I took 

 one set from these birds, and in 1878 it 

 nested in the same tree, digging a hole 

 higher up in the same limb. It is very 

 plenty there during migration, but breeds 

 rather sparingly. 



The latter part of last June I visited 

 Manitou and its immediate locality. While 

 gazing at the gigantic rocks that tower 

 toward the skies, in the Garden of the 

 Gods, 1 noticed hundreds of Violet-green 

 Swallows ( T. thalassint) and several Rock 

 Swifts (/*. saxatilis) soaring at a considera- 

 ble height above my head. Upon a closer 

 examination I noticed that nearly every 

 crevice in the rocks was occupied by their 

 nests, though none were accessible. Judg- 

 ing from the litter on the outside of the 

 rocks near their nests, and the lateness of 

 the season, I concluded that they all con- 

 tained young birds. — D. D. Stone. 



Notes froiri Syracuse, N. Y. 



May 25th, 1881, while climbing up a 

 sapling to a Wood Thrush's nes4,'.-the fe- 

 male darted at me and hit me quite forcibly 

 on the head. I afterward found that the 

 eggs were not much incubated. 



July 15th, 1881, while out shooting on 

 Nant-ick^t Lsland, I found a fresh Barn 

 Swallow's egg on the bare ground, among 

 the long grass of a hay field. — M. K. Bar- 

 iiu/H, Syracuse, N. Y. 



Chipping Sparrows 



FEEDING ON CABBAGE WORMS. 



The season for ornithological develop- 

 ment is passed. I have noticed fewer 

 young birds this summer than usual, but 

 I have made one valuable discovery. It is 

 that the C\\\\)^'mg ?,\y<\xnm [Spizella socialis) 

 is a devourer of the cabbage worm. I no- 

 ticed a pair which were doubtless feeding 

 on a brood in my garden yesterday, and 

 previous to that going from cabbage to cab- 

 bage in search of the green worm; and I 

 had the satisfaction ot seeing the worm in 

 the beak of the bird, and then to see it fly 

 off to where its nest was filled with birds. 

 This may not be a new discovery but only 

 new to me. But it is a demonstrated fact 

 of which I am glad. — V. M. firor. 



Yellow-headed Blackbird. 



On the twenty- fourth of last August, 

 while collecting in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, 

 I shot a somewhat peculiar specimen of the 

 Xanthocephalus icteroccphalus, of which the 

 following is a description: Length, 10.7 

 inches; stretch of wings, 12.50 inches; off 

 wing, 4.47 inches; Tail, 419 inches; tar- 

 sus, 1.59 inches; hill, .81 inch; color of 

 eyes, dark ; tarsi, b'ack ; bill, black. 



From the right side of the head, about 

 1-4 inch behind th- eye, extends one white 

 feather, said feather being tipped with 

 black. It extends nut from the head .82 

 of an inch by actual measurement The 

 yellow is of a bright orange shade, except 

 on the top of the head, and on the top and 

 sides of the' neck where it is very thickly 

 intermixed with bigck, giving one the idea 

 that it is a female. But, furthermore, it is 

 not of the rusty black, which almost invari- 

 ably denotes the female, but it is of a beau- 

 tiful clear black. It also has the white on 

 the wings, and very conspicuously too, 

 which a female- is said never to possess. 

 The sexual orgatis w. re b.idiy disintegrat- 

 ed by the shot, so that I was unable to def- 

 initely ascertain the sex, but from what 

 parts I could see, I thought it to be a fe- 

 male. — Geo. L. J'appafi, Chicago. 



