170 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Southern California, as are those 

 mentioned as common nesting sites. 



The nest itself is one of the best 

 made by any sparrow of the south- 

 west, especially when built in trees; 

 on the ground so much care is not ex- 

 ercised. First of all a strong outer 

 cup is made, composed of fine root- 

 lets or bark fibers. This is often as 

 much as an inch thick. Inside this 

 there is a second cup, the real nest, 

 which is made of the finest of grass 

 blades and dead leaves of all the 

 finer-leaved weeds. This, in turn, is 

 carefully lined with shreds of dry 

 grasses. Seldom are feathers or horse- 

 hair used, though the Western Chip- 

 ping Sparrow, nesting in the same lo- 

 cality, often in the identical tree, with 

 the Lark Sparrows, makes its nest al- 

 most entirely from the loot of stable 

 posts and cow stanchions. 



It requires from five days to a week 

 and a half for the lark sparrows, a 

 pair working together, to finish such 

 a home. Then, as a rule, two days 

 elapses before the first egg is laid. Af- 

 ter that first egg, one each day ap- 

 pears until the full quota, usually four, 

 are in the nest. In rare occasions 

 five eggs are laid, some times, when 

 the first set has been destroyed, or 

 when the birds are a very old pair, 

 only three eggs furnishes the full 

 complement. 



These eggs are well described, both 

 by Davie and by Reed in their books 

 on North American birds' eggs. They 

 are of a clouded blue-gray white in 

 ground color, dotted with remarkably 

 round dots and lined with wofully 

 crooked lines of brown, so deep at 

 times as to almost seem black. When 

 fresh, the yellow yolk, showing 

 through the thin shell, gives to the 

 egg a most beautiful pinkish tinge, 

 but when blown they become the com- 

 mon dead dull color of all such eggs 

 in the collector's cabinet. 



Los Angeles, Cal. 



HARRY H. DUNN. 



Probably Was Scared Away. 



Dear Mr. Short: — 



On the eleventh day of April, 1906, 

 three young girls were gathering 

 greens and found a bird's nest with 

 three eggs in it. They took them 

 home and punched a hole in each 

 end and blowed them and then one 

 of the lot thought they would tell me 

 of their adventure as egg collectors. 

 I made inquiries and found they were 

 some species of snipe or plover. I 

 succeeded in getting the remaining 

 shells, and while they may be Kill- 

 deer eggs, they do look very much like 

 a set of Wilson's plover which I have. 

 I have never been able to find any 

 other of the snipe or plover family 

 breeding here except Killdeer, Bar- 

 tramian Sandpiper and Woodcock, 

 but have been told by old hunters that 

 the so-called Jack Snipe used to lay 

 here in an early day. Do you think 

 you would be able to tell positively 

 whether they are Killdeer eggs? If 

 so, I will send them for your inspec- 

 tion, for really I am unable to deter- 

 mine positively, as the girls claim 

 they saw no bird of any kind and I 

 got one of them to show me where 

 they found them. 



The following is a description of 

 nest and surroundings. Nest on a 

 small mound of slack coal and slate 

 400 feet south of air shaft at coal 

 mine, which was running every day 

 and within 135 feet of B. & O. S. W. 

 R. R. main track, where about 18 or 

 20 trains pass daily. Nest was a de- 

 pression in center of the little mound 

 which was probably not over one foot 

 high. Size of cavity — Depth, 1 1-2 

 inches; diameter, 5 inches. Eggs laid 

 on a few slate shales size of thumb 

 nail and smaller and a few bits of de- 

 cayed weed stems. Nest was in plain 

 view as no vegetation was growing 

 for 100 yards or more away from it. 



