118 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



79 eggs average 41.8 by 28.9 millimeters; the eggs showing the four 

 extremes measures 45.5 by 30.5, 44 by 32, 37.5 by 29.2 and 39.4 by 

 26.3 millimeters. 



Young. — H. B. Conover has sent me the following interesting 

 notes : 



Newly hatched young were found June 22nd. The incubation period seems 

 to be about 20 days. A nest found by Murie on May 31 with two eggs, had 

 four eggs on June 2, and on being visited the evening of June 22, was found 

 to contain two young and two pipped eggs. The colors of the soft parts of a 

 downy young several days old were as follows : Tarsus olive with blackish 

 stripes down the sides, bill black, iris brown. In the newly hatched young 

 the tarsus is much lighter. On June 23 while visiting the nest of a black- 

 bellied plover, I came across a pair of dowitchers that from their actions 

 appeared to have young. Not wishing to stop at the time, I passed on, but 

 on returning several hours later, found them again in a marsh at the foot 

 of a long, low hill. When I sat down to watch, one bird wheeled about me 

 calling, and then flew off down the valley. The other bird at first I could 

 not locate, but soon saw it flying about the hillside chirping. I noticed that 

 as this bird passed over a certain spot, it would hover about 15 feet above 

 the ground, giving a whistling trill. After a few minutes it dawned on me, 

 that each time it hovered to give this call, it was a little farther up the 

 hillside. When I moved up toward the top of the hill, the bird alighted 

 close by, scolded for a while and then commenced the same performance as 

 before. In this way in about half an hour the dowitcher and I had crossed 

 the hill from one marsh to another, a distance of about 600 yards. During 

 all this time its mate had appeared only twice, when it flew by calling and 

 then disappeared again. Finally the bird I was following alighted in the 

 marsh at the far side of the hill from where we had started, and began 

 running short distances, stopping and then running on again. Watching 

 through some field glasses, I soon saw a young one following at its heels. 

 Rushing down suddenly, three downies were found hiding with their heads 

 stuck into holes or depressions in the moss. They appeared to be several 

 clays old. Evidently the old dowitcher had led these young ones across the 

 hill by simply hovering over or in front of them and calling. The bird was 

 collected and proved to be a male. Just what the relation of the male and 

 female to the eggs and young is in this species it is hard to say. From the 

 experience above I believe the male does nine-tenths of the work in caring 

 for the chicks. I think this will probably prove true as to the incubation 

 of the eggs as well, but that the female takes some share in the hatching 

 seems probable, as one collected in the vicinity of a nest showed incubation 

 patches. 



Plumages. — The downy young dowitcher somewhat resembles the 

 young snipe, but has a somewhat different pattern of similar colors. 

 The large central crown patch is black, clouded, or overcast, with 

 " chestnut " tips and with two indefinite spots of whitish tips ; the 

 black extends clown to the bill; a broad, black loral stripe extends 

 from the eye to the bill, and a still broader postocular stripe from the 

 eye to the nape ; these two stripes are separated from the dark crown 

 patch by a stripe which is " tawny " above the lores, buffy white over 

 the eyes, and white around the posterior half of the crown. The chin 



