42 



THE OOLOGIST 



and other similar material, and, if lined at 

 all, is only finished oft' with finer material 

 of the same description as that which com- 

 prises its base and sides. These can hard- 

 ly be said to be interwoven, so slightly are 

 they put together. The whole mass is so 

 loosely combined that it is not always pos- 

 sible, in attempting to remove the nest, to 

 prevent the materials from falling apart. 

 In this it difters a good deal from the nest 

 i)f the 8ea-side Finch. 



The number of eggs is Ircqucntly six, 

 more nsnally five. These are oval in shape, 

 are somewhat rounded at one end and slight- 

 ly tapering at the other. Their greatest 

 length is .78 of an inch and their least .70. 

 Their average length is .75 of an inch. 

 They vary but little in their greatest breadth 

 wliich is about ..58 of an inch. The eggs 

 of this species present a greater uniformity 

 of appearance than is generally found among 

 those of the Sparrow family. Their ground 

 color is a light green, varying only in in- 

 tensity, in some the green shading being 

 hardly perceptible but never wholly w^ant- 

 iug. The fine dots, points and markings 

 of rusty brown, with which tlie eggs are 

 profusely covered, are usually both uni- 

 versally and equally sprinkled over the en- 

 tire surface of the Q^^. In exceptional in- 

 stances these spots are larger, and form a 

 confluent ring around the larger end. In 

 other examples the points are so very small 

 and so closely sprinkled that it requires the 

 aid of a good glass to enable one to distin- 

 guish their separate distinctness, or to real- 

 ize that there is not before you one uniform 

 shade of a rusty brown. 



1 am not aware that the egg of Ammo- 

 drovivs Alhni has ever been found, and it 

 would be a matter of no little interest to 

 learn how much difference there may be i 

 between the eggs of this inland species and 

 those of its salt-water relatives, and wheth- 

 er tin's inland form is not a good and dis- 

 tinct species. 



Wr solicit oological notes from all parts 

 of the country. 



Two Nests of Ictkrus Baltimore. — 

 Number one was attached to the ends of 

 three twigs drooping perpendicularly, at the 

 end of a slender elm limb. Its depth is 

 seven inches outside and six inside, three 

 sides being carried upward more than two 

 inches above the fourth, which, by the prox- 

 imity of two of the twigs to each other, 

 forms what one might be justified in call- 

 ing an entrance, though there is no mate- 

 rial over the top. Its material is entirely 

 white hemp, sub-, supra- and intra-struct- 

 ure being all the same, ■wnith the exception 

 of half a dozen or so hair-like shavings in 

 the bottotn. It is not plastered together, 

 to be hardened by the weather, as some 

 nests of tliis bird are, but the fibers are in- 

 dividually incorporated inter se with most 

 wunderi'ul ingenuity. There are no dang- 

 ling ends nor extra pieces, for every fiber 

 is fastened either in the nest or to the twigs, 

 with a firmness sufficient to render it in- 

 vulnerable to the weather for years. In 

 general appearance, it is the handsomest 

 nest of the Baltimore Oriole we have ever 

 seen. Number two is a rather shabby, 

 make-shift affair, which seems as if it had 

 been extemporized for use late in the sea- 

 son. Its main material is twine of two or 

 three kinds, fibers of various vegetable sub- 

 stances, a good deal of thread, thistle-down, 

 some coarse strips of grape-vine bark, and 

 added to which is a promiscuous array of 

 stringy substances of many kinds. The on- 

 ly lining was the thistle-down and bark. 

 The whole was evidently stuck together, 

 for it is brittle and easily separates. The 

 ends of various pieces of string and thread 

 hang down for several inches, and less of it 

 is used in the nest than is thus left useless. 

 Instead of being built upon the twigs to 

 which it is attached, as the first is, it is 

 merely pendant from their tips, while two 

 or three pieces of string were carried up to 

 the main limb and wound around it once 

 or twice. It is shallow — 2J inches deep, — 

 flimsy, and of a ragged, ungainly appear- 

 ance, very much unlike most nests of this 

 bird in these particulars. 



