56 
General Notes. 
plenty of pines. -In these trees they construct their nests, which they 
build in old holes excavated by the California Woodpecker. They inva- 
riably select old, decayed trees, and build at great heights, so that it is 
impossible to get their eggs. I made two trips after these Swifts, the last 
one on May 9. I got on each trip seven C. vauxi and many fine Yiolet- 
green Swallows, though these were scarce on our last trip. We also found 
a small colony of Bell’s Finches ( Poospiza belli ) on one of the hills we 
crossed on our way. It is very strange that I have never met these birds 
anywhere in the immediate neighborhood, as I have hunted deer for sev- 
eral years in all the surrounding country, and never met one except on this 
single hillside. A quarter of a mile distant, on either side of this hill, not 
one will be found. — Charles A. Allen, Nicasio, Cal. 
Eggs of Picus albolarvatus. — Unless I am mistaken, no descrip- 
tion has as yet been made public of the eggs of the White-headed Wood- 
pecker. The eggs of this species were first discovered by Capt. Charles 
Bendire, in Southeastern Oregon. Mr. Charles A. Allen, of Nicasio, Cal., 
was so fortunate as to find this Woodpecker breeding in the Sierras of 
California, in the summer of 1879. A set of five eggs, now before me, pro- 
cured for the Museum of Comparative Zoology, was taken on the 4th of 
June, at Blue Canon, Placer Co., Cal. The nest was in a pine stump; 
the opening was about five feet from the ground, and had a depth of four 
inches. Below this it had a depth of eighteen inches, cut into the solid 
wood. The eggs were quite fresh. The female parent was taken on the 
nest and secured. The eggs are more than usually oblong-oval for a 
Woodpecker, of pure crystalline whiteness, and measure .95 X .73 ; .98 X 
.70; 1.00 X .77; 1.02 X.73; 1.02 X .76; averaging .99 X .74. — T. M. 
Brewer, Boston , Mass. 
The Black-backed Three-toed Woodpecker in Massachu- 
setts. — As we have so few records of the occurrence of Picoides arc- 
ticus so far south, an additional capture may be of interest. Mr. Charles 
N. Hammond has informed me of a male specimen in the collection of Mr. 
George Peck, who collected it at Hyde Park, Mass., the last of September, 
1878. Other specimens recorded have been taken much later in the sea- 
son. — Ruthven Deane, Cambridge , Mass. 
Golden-winged Woodpeckers Nesting in a Natural Cavity 
in A Decayed Tree. — I noticed to-day, May 12 , 1879, in the vicinity 
of Princeton, N. J., a hole that looked, on first sight, like that of a 
Flicker ( Colaptes auratus') that had been just finished. It was on the 
main trunk of a buttonwood-tree, about eighteen inches in diameter. On 
more closely examining the hole, I found that it merely pierced the 
“ shell ” of the tree, which was hollow entirely through its centre. It 
had evidently been drilled under a misapprehension, and the work aban- 
doned as soon as the hollow condition of the tree was ascertained. On 
rapping on the trunk of this tree, I saw a Flicker leave a large branch at 
