THE OOLOGIST. 



11 



bird, which proved to be the Large-billed I 

 species. I will describe the uest and eggs 

 as follows : The nest was built on the ground ! 

 at the base of a large black ash, partially 

 under and against a large root, which form- 

 ed an arch over half of the nest. It was 

 composed of a layer of dead leaves, moss, 

 fine roots and dried grasses, compactly and 

 rather smoothly finished, and lined with fine 

 grass and some i-ows' hair. The eggs were 

 five iu number, white (of a roseate tinge 

 before blown), thickly spotted with small 

 reddish -brown spots ; they measure about 

 .78 by .59 inch. The nest and eggs are 

 still iu my collection, and the bird iu that 

 of Prof. J. B. Steere, of Michigan Uni- 

 versity. 



Travesty Extraordinary. 



A writer in the January number of your 

 -^ excellent journal states that '■'•Dr. Brew- 

 er savs that any bird laying plain eggs is 

 liable to deposit lymph upon them. IIow 

 about the Woodpeckers' eggs, which are 

 never by any chance other than plain ?" and 

 afterward speaks of "• the lymph tliecny of 

 Dr. Brewer." Dr. B. iu a very hastily 

 written note to his friend Mr. Merriam, 

 commenting on an unprecedented case of 

 maculate eggs (T. muatelinus) threw out 

 a hasty suggestion as a possible explana- 

 tion. This was given in a private letter 

 with no thought of its ever being printed, 

 still less that his crude conjecture coidd ev- 

 er, by any chiuice, rise to the dignity of a 

 '■'■theonf I What Dr. Brewer did write 

 was: "The spots I never saw before, but 

 any egg, always except i:n<j a Woodpecker^ s, 

 is liable to be marked (stained) by minute 

 effusions of colored lymph of the parent in 

 its exclusion." The four words italicized 

 are auppressed by your correspondent, and 

 Woodpeckers' eggs are referred to as if the 

 knowledge of this exception originated with 

 and was first given by the writer ! Comment 

 is not necessary. 



Dr. B. has no fault to find w ith Mr. Mer- 

 riam for printing this crude and careless 



paragraph in his admirable Review of the 

 Birds of Connecticut, but, had he been a- 

 ware it was to be made public, he would 

 have endeavored to expressed his views with 

 more exactness and a little differently, as 

 he ought to have done under any circum- 

 stances. To what extent this liability of 

 eggs, usually immaculate, to be stained by 

 the over-excited ovi-ducts of the parent may 

 exist is purely conjectural. Audubon claim- 

 ed to have taken spotted eggs of the Three- 

 toed Woodpecker. The opinion of your 

 correspondent that '•'' one laying mai'ked 

 eggs alicaijs lays them," it by this is meant, 

 always lays marked eggs, can hardly be cor- 

 rect. I have a set of Crow's eggs, unspot- 

 ted and of a uniform bright greenish-blue, 

 the second laying of a female that, a month 

 before, had been I'obbed of a set deeply 

 marked and entirely normal in character. 

 I have an egg of a Song Sparrow, and of 

 one uniform pure buff, one of a set of five, 

 all alike, and the third laying by a pair 

 whose two previous sets had been deeply 

 spotted, all identified by myself. It is not 

 uncommon to fiiid spotted and unspotted 

 eggs laid by the name female in one set, in 

 nests of Agelaius pha;niceus, Quiscalus pur- 

 pnreus, Scolecophagus ferragincus, Sayor- 

 nis fuscus, nigricans and Say us, Empido- 

 nax traillii, pusillus, flaviventrts and ditfi- 

 cilis and others. How can these well known 

 facts be reconciled with the uniform theory 

 ; of your correspondent? In the apposite 

 lines attributed to Clarence King : 



"The gentle sclieme of uniform law 

 Can never quite satisfy me.'' 



T. M. BUEWEK. 



AriJiL 18. — Found a uest of the White- 

 rumped Shrike containing six eggs. The 

 nest was built in a solitary osage bush in 

 a pastui'e close to the road. 



Apx{IL 29, — Found a Robin's nest with 

 young just hatched. D. II. Eaton. 



Birds are nesting this season somewhat 

 earlier than for two years previously. 



