COMPARATIVE OOLOGY OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 485 



Oology of North American Passeres — Continued. 



CORVIIi-K. 



Note. Iii the genua Quiscalus the eggs are also peculiarly marked, as in the( Irioles, but not so with 



Scolecophagus. 



Families, genera, etc. 



Pica 



Oyanocitta — 



C. cristata. . . . 



Aphelocoma — 

 A . woodhousei 



Xanthoma — 

 X. Ivxuota 



Perisoreus — 



J', canadensis . 



Corvus (common char.) 



Picicorvus — 



P. columbianun 



Cyanocephalus — 

 C. cyanocephalus. 



Cones. 



JJidgway. 



Eggs 6-9; pale drab, dotted, dashed. 

 ami blotched with purplish-brown. 



Eggs5-6, broad, drab-colored, with 



brow n spots. 



Not specifically given. 



Eggs 3-4, greenish-drab, marked as 

 usual with browns. 



Eggs 3-4, yellowish-gray or pale 

 green, finely dotted and blotched J 

 with brown and slate or laven- 

 der, especially about the larger 

 end: others more uniformly and 

 largely blotched ; variation wide. I 

 as in other jays. 



(C. corax.) Eggs 4-S, oftener 4-5, j 

 greenish, dotted, blotched and 

 clouded with neutral tints, pur- 

 plish and blackish brown. 



Eggs light grayish-green, speckled 

 and blotched with grayish-brown 

 and lilac, chiefly about the larger 

 end. 



Eggs 3-4, greenish-white, pro- 

 fusely spotted with light brown 



and purplish. 



Eggs 3-10; pale olive-butty, dull 

 white, or very pale greenish, vari- 

 ously marked with brown. 



Eggs (3-5?), pale olive, isabella- 

 color, greenish or bully, rather 

 spareeh spotted or speckled 

 with brown. 



Eggs 3-6, pale green, rather 

 sparcely marked with very dis- 

 tinct dots or small spots of deep 

 madder-brown. 



Eggs 2-4, pale buff or pale grayish- 

 huff, thickly speckled with 

 umber-brown. 



Eggs dull white, drab-white, or 

 very pale grayish buff, speckled 

 with hair-brown or grayish- 

 brown or lilac-gray. 



Eggs 2-7. bluish-green, pale olive 

 or olive, spotted or dashed (or 

 both) with olive-brown (some- 

 times nearly uniform olive from 

 density of markings). 



Eggs dull white, sparingly 

 speckled, chiefly on larger end 

 with brown and purplish-gray. 



Eggs 3-5, pale greenish-blue or 

 greenish-white, thickly but finely 

 speckled with olive-brown. 



STURNIDJE. 



,5'. vulgaris Not given. 



Egg 4-7, plain pale greenish-blue 

 or bluish-white. 



This article would not be complete did I not add to it some of the 

 excellent observations of Prof. Alfred Newton and others relative to 

 the eggs of birds. After I have done this, I will draw up my " Con- 

 chiding remarks." Newton briefly gives us some excellent observa- 

 tions upon the "forms of the markings" on birds' eggs, and these it 

 is not difficult to see "have been deposited on the shell a short time 

 before its exclusion, are primarily and normally circular, for hardly any 

 egg that bears markings at all does not exhibit some spots of that form, 

 but that in the progress of the eggs through that part of the oviduct 

 in which the coloring matter is laid on many of them became smeared, 

 blotched, or protracted in some particular direction. The circular spots 

 thus betoken the deposition of the pigment while the egg is at rest, the 

 blurred markings show its deposition while the egg is in motion, and 

 this motion would seem often to be at once onward and rotatory, as in- 



