56 NORTH AMERICAN OOLOGY. PART I. 



t 

 varieties of this species. I have therefore confined myself to the illustration of only 



the two most common, with verbal descriptions of the more frequent varieties. The 

 following descriptions of eight specimens in my collection, not figured, represent 

 also not uufrequent variations from the above : 



Length 2^ inches, breadth lyf ; ground color reddish-white, thickly covered, 

 over the whole egg, with large confluent blotches of umber, with a slight mixture 

 of sienna-brown, at the larger end completely concealing the ground color, and of 

 varying depths of shade, less in size, and not quite so numerous at the smaller 

 end ; shape slightly pyriform. 



Length 2 T % inches, breadth 1{| ; ground color white, with only a faint tinge of 

 reddish ; marked round the larger end with a wreath of confluent blotches of umber 

 and chocolate-brown ; the smaller end nearly unmarked, with only a few dottings of 

 reddish-brown ; the rest of the egg marked with a few isolated and irregular dashes 

 of chocolate ; in shape oval, the smaller end but slightly more pointed than the 

 larger. 



Length 2 T 6 g- inches, breadth 1-jf ; broadly oval, slightly pointed at smaller end ; 

 ground color dirty, reddish-white, marked irregularly witli large blotches of deep 

 umber-brown, with fainter markings of a slaty drab, intermixed with which are a 

 few smaller dottings of brownish-purple. All the markings are more frequent at 

 the larger end, but distributed in small groups, without being confluent. 



Length 2-j 8 ^ inches, breadth l-ii ; oblong and slender, more than usually pointed 

 at the smaller end, ground color a bright reddish-white, light and uniform in its shade, 

 sparsely marked with a few large blotches of a brownish-red or light brick-color ; 

 larger at the extremity, with more frequent small dottings of the same shade, and a 

 few purplish spots. The unmarked ground color occupies more than half its surface. 



All of the above four were from New Jersey. 



Length 2 T 7 g- inches, breadth 1-jf ; ground color a light dirty brick-red ; marked 

 at larger end by a confluent mass of blotches of a rusty brown, or dark brick-red, 

 completely covering it ; the rest only marked by a few scattered and smaller blotches 

 of the same shade ; shape pyriform. 



Length 2 T 8 -g- inches, breadth l-i| ; ground color a dirty white with hardly a per- 

 ceptible shade of reddish ; marked at larger end with a confluent ring of dark umber 

 blotches ; a few scattered markings of the same distributed at intervals over the rest 

 of the egg, of which the larger part is unmarked. 



The last two were taken from the same nest near Halifax, Nova Scotia. 



The smallest egg of this species that I have met with measures 2^ inches in 

 length, lj|"in breadth; ground color a beautiful clear white, with the faintest tinge 

 of reddish ; nearly unmarked, except at the larger end, which is covered by a mass 

 of confluent blotches of dark umber and chocolate-brown ; a few spots of faint pur- 

 plish-brown and darker umber sprinkled over the rest of its surface. 



The largest that I have seen measures 2 T 9 ^ inches in length, 1-if in breadth; 

 the ground color is a creamy white, with a perceptible shade of red ; marked with 

 large confluent blotches of dark umber-brown. 



One undoubted egg of this bird, in the collection of Mr. Krider, is hardly distin- 

 guishable from a common variety of the Caracara Eagle (Polyborus tliarus). 



