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 pulilication.. For my part 
I do not see anything unjust in your criti¬ 
cism. I noticed an article by J. F. Rath- 
bun, of Auburn, N. Y., concerning the 
Yellow-bellied Wood-pecker {S. varius) 
In reply to his query I would say that 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 from Syracuse, N. Y. 
May 25th, 1881, while climbing up a 
.sapling to a Wood Thrush’s nest, 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 
Nantucket Island, I found a fre.sh Barn 
Swallow’s egg on the bare ground, among 
the long grass of a hay field.— M. K. Bar- 
num, 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 Chipping Sparrow 
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 of 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 
Xanthoccphaliis icterocephaliis, 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; bill, .8r inch; color of 
eyes, dark ; tarsi, black ; bill, black. 
From the right side of the head, about 
1-4 inch behind the eye, extends one white 
feather, said feather being tipped with 
black. It extends out from the head .82 
of an inch by actual measurement The 
yellow is of a bright orange shade, except 
on [he top of the head, and on the top and 
sides of the neck where it is very thickly 
intermixed with black, giving one the idea 
that it is a fe nale. But, furthermore, it is 
not of the rnstv black, which almost invari¬ 
ably denotes the female, but it is of a beau¬ 
tiful clear black. It also h.is the white on 
the wings, and very conspicuously too, 
which ;• fern de is said never to possess. 
1 lie rexud orgaris were bully disintegrat¬ 
ed by. the shot, so that I wa-; unable to def¬ 
initely ascertain the sex, but from what 
parts I could see, I thr.ught it to be a fe¬ 
male. — (jco. L. Tappan, C/ticago. 
