EASTERN BLUEBIRD 241 



material were made by the female, the last fifteen of which were from a distance 

 with material of fine texture, while the others were from less than 50 yards, with 

 one or more pieces of dead grass. Sixth, the old birds, with young of both broods, 

 returned to the vicinity of the two nests after an absence of about a month, and 

 the old birds evidenced great interest in the second nesting-site and showed some 

 jealousy when the young approached it too closely. 



Ora W. Knight (1908) says: "Nest building is participated in by 

 both parents, and I have known of a nest containing the full comple- 

 ment of eggs just seven days after the birds began building, indicating 

 that the nest was completed in three days and an egg laid daily 

 thereafter." 



Henry Mousley (1916) "once witnessed a pair of these birds drive 

 out a Hairy Woodpecker from a half completed nesting hole it had 

 made, and after gaining possession of it they immediately set to work 

 building a nest which was completed and four eggs laid in the re- 

 markably short space of six days." 



Alexander Sprunt, Jr., has sent me the following account of an 

 unusual nesting site, as observed by Prof. Franklin Sherman, of 

 Clemson College, S. C. Professor Sherman writes: "The nest is 

 saddled on a horizontal limb of an oak, at about 12 to 15 feet above 

 the ground, and about 15 feet out from the trunk of the tree, which 

 is in the front lawn of the college hotel building, almost overhanging 

 a much-frequented street or road. One or two small twigs give sup- 

 port to the nest, but it is not in any fork of the main limb — it is 

 saddled on the limb itself, which is about l){ inches in diameter at 

 the nest. During my stay of about 20 minutes the adult female 

 made two visits to the nest and fed the clamoring young." 



Eggs. — The bluebird may lay anywhere from three to seven eggs 

 to a set; as small a set as three is unusual, five is a much commoner 

 number than four, six eggs are often found, but sets of seven are rare. 

 The eggs are ovate or short-ovate and are somewhat glossy. They 

 are normally very pale blue or bluish white and always, as far as I 

 know, are unmarked. Numerous sets of pure-white eggs have been 

 reported; Dr. Musselman (1935) says: "In 1935 I was able to reach 

 definite knowledge of the percentage of white eggs laid by BlueDirds. 

 Of the 730 eggs recorded, 40 were albinistic in nature, or a total of 

 5.48 per cent. Fifty per cent of these white eggs hatched and the 

 young were banded, and I am hoping that some of the young birds 

 may return to this vicinity next year which will allow me to deter- 

 mine whether the trait of laying albinistic eggs is inherited." His 

 hope was realized, for in his later paper (1939), he states: "This year 

 [apparently 1938] I had the return of the first young female bird 

 which had developed from a white egg laid in one of my boxes. * * * 

 Imagine my delight in recording six albinistic eggs laid by this second 



