COMPARATIVE OOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 475 



tinted eggs be discovered in the same clutch. According to Behdire 

 the California Vulture (Pseudogryphm) lays twoelong&te ovate, slightly 

 glossy eggs of a uniform lighl grayish-green color and unspotted. 

 They differ from the eggs of other Vultures in that they are "close 

 grained and deeply pitted " (p. 1GL). Of the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes 

 dura) he observes that "two eggs are usually laid, occasionally but 

 one, and very rarely three. These are among the handsomest eggs of 

 the Baptores. Their ground color is generally a light creamy tint, 

 occasionally a dull, dead white, with a very faint trace of green in some- 

 few instances. They are blotched, smeared, and spotted with various 

 shades of reddish-brown, chocolate, and lavender, the markings usually 

 predominating about tin; larger end of the egg, and very irregular in 

 outline. In eggs belonging to the same set the markings frequently 

 dift'er greatly in size and intensity, one being heavily marked and the 

 other but slightly. Occasionally an egg is found which is entirely 

 unspotted. The eggs also vary greatly in shape; the majority are 

 elongate ovate, a few are ovate, others elliptical ovate, and now and 

 then one is perfectly cylindrical ovate" (p. 164). Gatharista atrata, 

 on the other hand, lays eggs which " are readily distinguished from 

 those of the Turkey Vulture by their different ground color, somewhat 

 larger size, and fewer markings as a rule. By far the greater num- 

 ber of eggs are elongate ovate, a few are short ovate, others elliptical 

 ovate. Their ground color is a pale gray-green; in none of the speci- 

 mens before me can it be called a creamy white; the tint is perceptibly 

 different. In an occasional specimen it may be called pale bluish- 

 white, like well-watered milk, but the first-mentioned color predomi- 

 nates. u The markings vary from chocolate to reddish-brown of differ- 

 ent tints, and mixed among these, in about half of the specimens, 

 are fouud shell markings of lilac and lavender; in an occasional speci- 

 men these predominate over the first-mentioned tints. In the series 

 before me all the markings are rather irregular in shape and are clus- 

 tered about the larger end of the egg. They are usually large and 

 seldom confluent. A few eggs are but slightly marked, and the spots 

 are small and tine, but none are entirely unspotted." {Log. cit., pp. 107, 

 108.) 



We now come to the Falconidce, a group of birds which are known, 

 as a rule, to lay very beautiful eggs, and one has but to examine the 

 richly colored and thoroughly accurate figures in Capt. Bendire's work 

 to fully appreciate this tact. 



Kidgway observes that Elanus leucurus lays from 2 to .'1 eggs r but 

 Bendire says the}* lay more than that commonly, and that the ''set varies 

 from 3 to 5, generally 4." They are of great beauty, the " groundcolor 

 is creamy white, and they are heavily marked over their entire surface 

 with irregular continent blotches and smears of dark bloodied and 

 claret brown, of different degrees of intensity, the smaller end being 

 often the more heavily colored. But little of the ground color is visible 



