General Notes. 
1 T 5 
“About the first week in May, 1876. a pair of Chats [ Icteria virens\ 
began building in a Wren box attached to one of the pillars of the south 
piazza which partly fronts towards a small ravine. They seemed to be 
very little disturbed by the occasional presence of members of the family, 
but appeared to be considerably annoyed by the belligerent attentions of 
a pair of Wrens ( Troglodytes aedori) who had taken up their quarters in 
another box on an adjacent pillar, and who were inclined to be very quar- 
relsome with their strange neighbors. 
“ They — the Chats — had been at work nearly a week, when a violent 
wind-storm blew the box down and thus rudely upset their domestic plans. 
The box was replaced in hopes that they would try it again, but their per- 
severance was not equal to the occasion, and they never returned. In view 
of the generally shy and secretive nature of the Chat, this incident of 
abnormal nidification seems rather curious. ’—Charles F. Batchelder, 
Cambridge , Mass. 
Song of the White-bellied Swallow {Iridofirocne bicolor ). — I 
have seen no account of the song of this species, nor, indeed, was I aware 
of its musical powers until the past summer. Mav 24, .at an elevation of 
8000 feet, I found a little colony just beginning house-keeping in a cotton- 
wood grove on an island in the San Antonio River. Colorado. When at 
rest they uttered a peculiar chirrupy warble, bearing resemblance to a 
Sparrow’s song in some respects, and strikingly like a Robin’s in some of 
the half whistles. 
The species breeds as high as 10,000 feet, and, I believe, always in trees. 
— F. M. Drew, Howardsville. Colorado. 
The White-bellied Swallow ( Tachycineta bicolor ) on the New 
* Jersey Coast in November. — Mr. Gerard R. Hardenbergh of New 
Brunswick, New Jersey, tells me of the great abundance of the White- 
bellied Swallow at Squam Beach-, New Jersey, on November 16, 1880. 
The Swallows had been abundant for the previous two days, though the 
temperature was unusually low for the time of year. They were feeding- 
on the bayberry ( Myrica cerifera') in such numbers that Mr. Hardenbergh 
secured fifteen birds at a single shot. The birds were brought to me, 
and at least three quarters are in immature plumage. — W. E. D. Scott,- 
Princeton , New Jersey. 
A New Bird {Plectrophanes pictus) for South Carolina. — In the 
town of Chester, S. C., while walking, on December 1, 1880, through a 
stubble field overgrown with short grass, my attention was arrested by the 
undulating flight and peculiar chirping notes of a small bird, some thirty 
or forty feet in the air, flying towards me. When within about twenty 
yards of the place where I stood, it suddenly darted to the ground; and, 
when approached, ran nimbly oif through the grass, stopping occasionally 
to watch my movements, and, finally, when too closely pressed took wing, 
continuing its flight, only, however, for a .few yards. After being flushed 
several times, and apparently growing less shy, it allowed me to advance 
