182 
General Notes. 
The nest is rather a large structure, between nine and ten inches in 
diameter and five inches deep. The cavity is slightly oval, measuring 
three and six-tenths by three and two-tenths, and is two inches deep. 
The bottom is formed of large pieces of rotten wood, which must have, 
been torn from some neighboring stump, while the sides are supported by a 
scraggy structure of long twigs. The walls are formed of strips of bark and 
the subjacent rotten wood, apparently of cedars, cocoons, the remains of 
wasp nests, lichens and the like. All this material is closely packed to- 
gether, but not woven, so that were it not for the outer coat of twigs the 
whole would quickly fall apart. On one side, snarled up among the twigs, 
is a long piece of white twine, which shows that the neighboring camp 
was called upon to pay its tribute. The lining is quite thick, and offers a 
decided contrast to the walls. Rootlets of various kinds form the greater 1 
part, though grass and the remains of wasp nests form the floor. A few 
feathers are scattered throughout the structure and about as many more 
are to be found inside. By far the greater part of these are from the Jays 
themselves, and they might be regarded as of accidental occurrence were it 
not for a few from some species of Grouse. As a whole the nest is a sub- 
stantial structure, admirably adapted to keep the eggs and nestlings warm. 
The eggs were three in number, and are of about the same size and form 
as those of the Blue Jay. Their ground color is a light green of much the 
same color as the Field Sparrow’s egg.. Two of the eggs are thickly cov- 
ered with fine spots of lavender and light brown, the spots being most 
abundant at the large end. The third has less lavender and more brown, 
while the spots are of considerable size and evenly distributed. — J. Amory 
Jeffries, Boston , Mass. 
Notes on the Plumage of Nephcecetes niger borealis. — An 
examination of ten birds of this species, taken at Howardsville, Colorado, j 
in 1880 and 1881, leads me to believe that four years are necessary for them 
to acquire their complete plumage. A young male of the year, taken 
Sept. 17, was marked as follows. General color dull black, every feather 
tipped with white, scarcely appreciable on upper back and throat, broader 
on upper tail coverts and rump. Crissum almost pure white. In birds of 
the second year the general plumage has a brownish cast; feathers of back 
tipped with brown, the head whitish, belly feathers yet broadly tipped 
with white. The third year the color is black, with a very faint edging of 
white on under tail coverts. In the fourth year pure black, forehead hoary, 
neck with a brownish wash. Feathers bordering the black loral crescent 
whitish. 
Tail in young of first year, rounded; in second year, slightly rounded; 
in third year slightly emarginate, feathers becoming more acute. In adult, 
forked, outer feathers three-eighths of an inch longer than inner. 
I do not know when they come — some time late in June — but they re- 
main until long after the Violet-green Swallows leave. They always 
hunt in flocks, range far above 13,000 feet and breed up to at least 1 1 ,000 feet. ! 
Those I have shot have had their crops filled with Ephemeridce , and it 
