Me.asurements. — Full and reliable data on the measurements of the 

 nest are. with a few exceptions, a minus quantity. Few observers think 

 it worth while to take notes of this kind, and the wide latitude taken by 

 those who have recorded the proportions of the nest, renders it extremely 

 difficult to arrive at a safe average. Outside of New York and Pennsyl- 

 vania, the notes are not sufficiently numerous to give an average of value. 



OUTSIDE. INSIDE. 



DI.'VMETER. DEPTH. 



7-35 415 



9.00 5.00 



6.00 3.00 



The above is deducted from data collected in New York and Pennsylva- 

 nia, and all measurements are given in inches and hundredths of an inch. 

 While the inside measurements do not differ materially between early and 

 late nests, the external measurements do to some extent. The early 

 builder constructs a slightly larger and much more compact nest than 

 the bird building late in the season, /. c. last week in April and first week 

 in Mav. 



EGGS. 



Time Between Completion of Nest .\nd Deposition of First Egg. — 

 Little or no light has been thrown on this, Mr. Ellis F. Hadley, Dayton, 

 Oregon, asserts that a month intervens, I have found that the female, 

 if hard pushed, will deposit her first egg as soon as the nest is completed ; 

 at other times, often from four to eight days passed before the first egg 

 was laid. 



Deposition of Full Clutch. — Mr. Lynds Jones has found that if the 

 female be hard pushed, as is often the case when the nest is long in 

 building, the eggs are laid each day until the set is completed, othewise 

 often a day intervens, when she is not so pushed. Mr. Victor Dewein, 

 Peoria, 111., has found that in some cases it takes eleven days to lav a full 

 complement of five eggs. I would say that ordinarily a full clutch is de- 

 posited in as many days as there are eggs in the set. in South-eastern 

 Pennsylvania. 



Nunber of Eggs in .\ Set. — It has only been of recent date that the 

 " number of eggs in a set " has received much attention; and many of 

 our most eminent ornithologists and oologists have gotten themselves at 

 once into deep water, when they set down arbitrary figures without suf- 



