THE 00L0GI8T 



36 



rassecl me for not shooting the panther 

 with bird shot, but the ranch owner 

 who was lighting a cigarette by a 

 coal of fire raised his head and said, 

 "Ye better be doggone glad ye didn't 

 shoot at him with them bird shot. 

 Why that would made the ole boy 

 ready to fight instead of run." 



Ramon Graham, 

 Ft. Worth, Tex. 



Not Golden Fronted Woodpecker's 

 Eggs. 



On page 86, 1914 Oologist, the late 

 E. .1. Darlington described a set of 

 eggs (five) secured from the collection 

 of the late Wm. B. Crispin, and asked, 

 'What are they?" 



The set was taken by F. B. Arm- 

 strong, Tampico, Mexico, and accred- 

 ited to the Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher. 



Mr. Darlington describes them as 

 pale cream color, two marked with 

 reddish and lavender spots, while the 

 others are almost plain (unmarked). 

 While eggs of the Sulphur-bellied Fly- 

 catcher are like those of the Crested 

 Flycatcher, as pointed out by Mr. Dar- 

 lington, these eggs were more like 

 those of the Martin (Purple?). 



His description, however, placed 

 them as far away from Martins' eggs 

 as they appeared to be from the Sul 

 phur-bellied Flycatcher, inasmuch as 

 all were creamy white and showed 

 more or less markings. 



I have examined hundreds of nests 

 of the Purple Martin with flash and 

 mirror in the hope of finding at least 

 one breaking away from the regula- 

 tion type of immaculate, but in a total 

 of three or four thousand eggs thus 

 examined, not one showed any trace 

 of markings. Other Swallows, such as 

 Barn, Cliff, etc., frequently lay pure 

 white unmarked eggs, but I say, a 

 marked specimen of Purple Martin 

 egg will be an abnormal wonder — not 

 an impossibility, however. 



Now, apparently, Mr. Darlington ob- 

 tained satisfactory authenticity from 

 some Texas man who pronounced the 

 yuestioned eggs Golden-fronted Wood- 

 peckers' (see Oologist, 1915, page 64). 



Mr. E. H. Short, of Chili, N. Y., saw 

 the eggs, as did also Mr. E. J. Court, 

 National Museum, Washington, D. C, 

 but neither could name the species; 

 Mr. Court stating that they certamly 

 were not eggs of the Sulphur-bellied 

 Flycatcher. 



Sometimes 1 have wondered if Mr. 

 Darlington was taking the identifica- 

 tion seriously, by the Texas man who 

 said the eggs were a typical set of 

 Golden-fronted Woodpecker. 



Mr. Armstrong sent me eggs of the 

 Golden-fronted Woodpecker, but they 

 are real Woodpeckers' eggs. 



The Golden-fronted Woodpecker 

 never did, and cannot lay spotted eggs. 

 Biological laws governing the separa- 

 tion of orders and the coloration of 

 eggs forbid it. But, on the other hand, 

 the Sulphur-bellied Flycatchers will 

 produce eggs graduating all the way 

 from the normal specimen, through ex- 

 tremely lightly marked types to ab- 

 normally faintly marked and the rarer 

 phase of abnormalism — pure white. A 

 pure white egg of the Sulphur-bellied 

 Flycatcher, or any of the Crested 

 species, retaining its normal shape, 

 will very closely resemble normal eggs 

 of the Purple Martin. 



1 firmly believe Mr. Armstrong knew 

 what he was doing when he accredited 

 the eggs to the Sulphur-bellied Fly- 

 catcher. 



Mr. Armstrong furnished me many 

 sets of abnormal eggs, and there can 

 be no question of authenticity. Why 

 he allowed this set, valuable to a stu- 

 dent of abnormal eggs, to get into 

 hands where even museum bird doc- 

 tors could not name the species, 1 do 

 not understand. J. Warren Jacob.s. 



Waynesburg, Pa., Jan. 12, 1923. 



