THE WILSON QUARTERLY. 8^ 



"record bonefioni Wisconsin, (Wilson Quarterly, VoL iv. 

 jS"©. 1, page 34.) Both Texas observers find it abundant. 

 In Iowa it is the most abundant bird. 



Mr. Oldright found the first nest May L Donald May 20, 

 incubation advanced. In Iowa the first nest ]\[ay 15 ; the 

 last August 10. Two broods are raised. 



Mr. Donald has never found a nest on the ground, all be- 

 ing in grass, weeds, or bushes, from two or three inches to 

 three f-eet up. Mr. Oldright says that nests are either on 

 the ground or in bushes up to ten f-eet above ground. I 

 have found but few nests on the ground ; one was in an. ap- 

 ple tiee, twenty feet up. Usually nests are in low bushes-, 

 weeds, or grass, in copses, or neglected fields. 



Nests made early in the season are composed of leaves, 

 grass, and weed stalks, lined with fine grass, sometimes with 

 a few rootlets and hair. Later nests, those made in July, are 

 almost wholly made of the dead stalks of the Shepherd's 

 Purse ; looking much like nests of Rose-breasted Grosbeak 



The eggs are four to six, commonly five, in number, in 

 Iowa, four iu Texa^. In color tliey very cljsely resemble 

 eggs of Bluebird, being light blue an spotted. 



Texas eggs average .83 x .(51, with a variation of .00 x .01. 



In Iowa eggs average .81 x .00. Incubation is completed 

 in thirteen days. 



Guiraca coerulea. Blue Grosbeak. 



Both Texas observers have found this Grosbeak rare in 

 Texas. Mr. Donald has collected two sets of eggs. One 

 was found June -4, the other May 2o. 



One was in a Black Jack bush, in the edge of a cotton 

 field, three feet up ; it contained four eggs. The other 

 was in tlie same kind of a bush in the timber in oak up- 

 lands, two feet up ; it contained two eggs, both were 

 three miles from Decatur. 



The nests were made of weeds, grass, leaves, corn husks, 

 and paper fastened together with spider-webs, and lined 

 with fine rootlets and horse-hai)-. 



In size the eggs average .88 x . 03; smallest, .87 x .02 ; larg- 

 est, .91 X .04. They are plain, light blue, rarely spotted 

 with lilac shades. 



