48 T.HK FLICKER. 



from Fairbank, Minn.; and J. H. Bowles, Ponkapog, Mass., 

 describes the latter .species as sometimes laying eggs minutely 

 spotted with dots of red or black, for the most part easily 

 washed off. 



Texture. The shell has a fine smooth surface with a por- 

 celain-like glo.ss normally. A .set of five in my cabinet col- 

 lected at Avery's Island, La., is quite unu.sual in having no 

 gloss whatever. Granulations appear upon the larger ends 

 not infrequently, being much more noticeable on a white and 

 polished surface than upon a colored or lusterlcss specimen. 

 ,Mr. Jacobs, in describing the abnormally large egg in the 

 Ottawa, Kansas, set, notes a number of dead white granula- 

 tions .scattered over the .shell at random, and at one side a 

 decided hump ; a large circular patch on the larger end is also 

 dead white, indicating a thin spot in the shell. 



Measurements. The average of over 500 eggs, nearly all 

 of which were taken in the United States, is 1.09X.85. 173 

 eggs taken in New York and Pennsylvania are but a very small 

 fraction above the general average. When amassing data, the 

 extraordinary amount of variation to which it proves subject 

 was not taken into account and what was at first considered 

 a fair number of measurements proves insufficient material for 

 a series of locality averages. The South, Northeast, and 

 Northwest show surprisingly little difference in general aver- 

 ages. Leaving out the series of 48 eggs taken from a single 

 bird inhabiting the mountains of Western North Carolina, 

 reduces the Southern average to 1.06X.84, and a further re- 

 duction to 1.02X.88 is made by not including the Louisiana 

 (Avery's Island) series which are large eggs al.so. On the 

 other hand many eggs from Maine, Iowa, Minnesota and Ne- 

 braska are unusually small, thus lowering the averages of their 

 respective localities. 



IvOCAIJTY. NO. EGGS. AVER. MAX. MIN. 



IS^^i'^^"^' '^''^'''} 1^^ 1.098 X. 849 1.24 X. 92 .90x.75 



Northeast (New England, ) f 1.15 x .91 1.00 x .75 



New York, Ontario — To- I 23.3 1.090 x .855 j 1.22 x .86 .96x.80 

 ronto— , Pennsylvania) . . | ( 1.21 x .88 .97 x .73 



Northwest (O., Ky., Wis, 1 -.g^. 1088^8^-,,', 1 41 ., qq qq v fi'^ 

 Kas., Neb. , Iowa., Minn. ) / -^^^ -^'^^^ ^ '^'^'^ -^'^^ '^"^ '^'^ '^^ 



The major axis is .stibject to much greater variation than 



