484 



KEPOKT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1892. 



Oology of North American Pa8seres : — Continued. 



FRINGILLIDiE. 



Note.— There are upwards of 150 species of Finches, Sparrows, Grosbeaks, Cross-bills, etc., in the 

 United States avifauna, and they lay a great variety of eggs, and it would be quite impracticable to 

 describe or classify even a part of them here, so I resort to the plan of only presenting the character- 

 istic types. Of these eggs many are spotted, with a ground color of white, various" shades of pale 

 green and blue, and the spotting near the larger end in a wreath. White eggs, sparsely spotted, are 

 not common, and in my selections I have endeavored to show the differences that exist. 



Families, genera, etc. 



Coues. 



Pinicola enucleator 



Leucosticte 



Spinus tristis 



Eggs 4; greenish-blue, spotted and 

 blotched with dark brown and 

 lilac shell-spots. 



Eggs 3-6; pure white 



Eggs 4-fl; bluish-white, normally 

 unmarked. 



Eidgway. 



Eggs pure white. 



Note.— In the numerous species of the genera Pooecetes, Ammodramus, Melospiza, Junco, Garpodacus. 

 Spizella, Loxia, Zonotrichia, Ghondestes (4-7, white, with zigzag lines, as in some Iteridce), Passeiella, 

 Calcarius, Pipilo, and others, the eggs, although showing almost an infinite variety of patterns, all 

 have the common character of markings upon them of some kind or other. They constitute the great 

 bulk of United States "fringilline " birds. Exceptions are seen in the other genera as given below. 



Note. — The case of Amphhpiza is one of a plain egg and a marked one in the same genus of birds. 



Note.— The so-called " Grosbeaks " of the genera Habia, Oardihalis, PyrrhtUoxia all lay handsomely 

 marked eggs, but in the genus Guiraca the eggs are a "pale greenish-blue or bluish- white," and not 

 marked. In Passerina (some of the species (2*. amcena) the eggs are also plain. 



Families, genera, etc. 



Coues. 



Eidgway. 



Dolichonyx 



Moloth rus (parasitic 

 Agelceus 



Xanthocephalcw 



Sturnella 



Icterus — 



/. galbula 



Eggs 4-6, stone-gray, dotted, mot- 

 tled, and clouded with dark 

 brown. 



Eggs white, fully speckled, and 

 dashed with browns and neutral 

 tints. 



Eggs 4-0; pale blue, fantastically 

 dotted, blotched, clouded, anil 

 scrawled over with dark or even 

 blackish-brown and paler or 

 plurplish shell marks. 



Eggs :s-ti; gray-green spotted, as 

 in Scolecophagus, with reddish- 

 brown, not scrawled as in Age- 

 lceus. 



Eggs 4-6; crystal white, speckled 

 with reddish and purplish (very 

 variable). 



Eggs 4-6; shaded white, irregu- 

 larly spotted, blotched, clouded, 

 and especially scrawled with 

 blackish-brown, etc., and shell 

 markings. 



Eggs 2-5, dull white or brownish. 

 white, heavily spotted or 

 blotched with "vandyke-brown- 

 usually with a few fine lines or 

 irregular markings of blackish. 

 Dull white, greenish-white or 

 brownish-white, speckled or spot- 

 ted more or less densely with brown. 

 Agrees with Coues. 



M Occasionally pen-lined.) 



Eggs 3.-6; white, speckled with 

 reddish - brown, blackish - brown, 

 and lilac-gray. 



Description practically agrees. 



