THE OOLOGIST. 



119 



On June Ifith, a third set of three 

 fresh eggs were collected, also from 

 the -same nest. 



Oq, June 26th, a fourth set of three 

 fresh eggs were removed from this 

 nest. 



No nest egg was left in the nest to 

 induce the bird to continue laying, for 

 in such a case, in all probability, the 

 bird would have deserted or incubated 

 the egg left in the nest. 



There can be no doubt but that the 

 four sets were laid by the same fe- 

 male, as only one pair of birds in- 

 habited the wood, a small and isolated 

 grove of about one-quarter acre in 

 area; for the eggs are alike in shape, 

 size and color, and show no diminu- 

 tion in size, the last set being as large 

 as the first. 



Nine days elapsed after the taking 

 of the first set until the laying of the 

 second set; nine days between the 

 second and third sets; and ten days 

 between the third and fourth comple- 

 ment. 



When the first set was taken the 

 nest was thinly lined, the bare walls 

 being plainly visible through the lin- 

 ing of rootlets, but before the laying 

 of the second set the birds had lined 

 it thickly with this material. 



Several years ago there was a Wood 

 Thrush's nest in the same situ, from 

 which a set of eggs was taken, and 

 it would be interesting to know 

 whether they were laid by this bird, 

 but as they have passed out of my 

 collection it is, of course, impossible 

 for me to say. 



Subtracting three days for the de- 

 positing of the eggs, for the Wood 

 Thrush lays an egg every day until 

 the set is laid, we have a minimum 

 period of six days for the bird to get 

 "into condition" to lay each set, which 

 seems to me a remarkably short time; 

 and in 2S days the bird laid 12 eggs! 



The nest was not afterward seen 

 until late in the summer and appear- 

 ances then indicated that a brood of 

 young had been raised in it, undoubt- 

 edly by the same pair of birds, who 

 laid a fifth set and managed to hatch 

 them. 



(These notes are interesting as bear- 

 ing on the much discussed question as 

 to whether disturbing a set of fresh, 

 eggs tends to prevent breeding that 

 season, but taking so many sets from 

 one pair could only be justified as a 

 rare experience. — Ed. ) 



Another Set of Five Robin. 



Ernest H. Short. 



Dear Sir: — May not this be of inter- 

 est to at least some of the Oologist 

 readers, though it is a taking of seven 

 years ago. 



During an afternoon's search for 

 Siskins, on June 26, 1901, and without 

 results in the way of the little hair-lin- 

 ed nests, I was finally rewarded with a 

 lucky find. It was a nest of the West- 

 ern Robin (Merula migratoria propin- 

 qua). The nest was eight feet up and 

 near the end of a 15-foot spruce limb, 

 on the edge of a small swampy gulch. 



As I was not in line for taking sets 

 of this common yearly resident, it 

 must have been my poor success in 

 finding Pine Siskins for the day, that 

 gave me an egger's feeling to see 

 something with eggs in it, so I just 

 took a peep into this nest. It con- 

 tained five fresh eggs. The eggs are 

 fine specimens of Western Robin, 

 everyone being of an unusually dark 

 bluish-green cast and perfectly uni- 

 form in size and shape. Nest was of 

 usual structure, mud and dry grass, 

 lined with fine grass. This is the only 

 set of five eggs of Western Robin, I 

 have ever seen. 



C. IRVIX CLAY, 



Eureka, Cal. 



