THE FIvICKER. 49 



the minor axis, which is I beheve, the case with all kinds of 



A set collected at Mt. Pleasant, S. C, April '21 st, and now 

 in the collection of Mr. R. P. Sharpies, measure 1.17X .''*>^', 

 1.24X.92, 1.19X.W, 1.10X.S4, and the collector— Mr. Arthur 

 T. Wayne — says they might easily be mistaken for the eggs of 

 the Pileated Woodpecker. It remains for the Ottawa, Kansas, 

 bird, already referred to as building in a school house loft, to 

 break the record in the dimensions of one egg. The set is 

 now in the collection of Mr. J. Warren Jacobs and measures 

 1.16X.94, 1.15X.91, l.lSx.'SS, 1.17X.94, 1.21 X .92, l.lOx 

 .91, 1.41X.9o. Equally remarkable is a set of small eggs col- 

 lected by Prof. Ora W. Knight, Bangor, Maine, June 14, "1).') — 

 .85X.75, .99X.79, .9SX.77, .87X.79, .77X.72— and is prob- 

 ably a second or third .set. The average of IB eggs known to 

 be of the second laying is slightly le.ss than the general average 

 — 1.07X.84. Mr. Chas. ly. Phillips, who took 71 eggs from 

 one hole in 73 days, .states that the}' appeared of the usual 

 dimensions with very little variation ; a fact also noted by J. 

 Parker Norris in the Ornithologist and Oolooist after he had 

 collected 30 eggs from one pair and found the last i^gg as large 

 as the first. The measurements of the 4S eggs taken from one 

 bird near Green.sboro, N. C, as already briefly mentioned 

 under the head of Season' s Aggregate, are before me, although 

 unfortunately not in exact order of deposition, and exhibit a 

 great difference in .size — from 1.08X.80to 1.17X .87— much 

 larger than the general average. Runt eggs are by no means 

 scarce, in fact I consider them more often occuring in this 

 species than in any other of the family. Mr. Otto Grady, 

 Ludlow, Ky., found a nest June 24, '95, containing .six young 

 ready to leave, piled pellmell on top of one another, and three 

 runt eggs; one being as thick as an ordinary Robin's egg and 

 much longer than the average Flicker's egg, the second the 

 .size of a Red-headed Woodpecker's egg, and the third almost 

 globular. An Orleans County ( N. Y. ) collector took 20 eggs 

 from a pair in 27 days, the 8th and 9th being runts. Another 

 is incidently mentioned by another New York oologist, but no 

 particulars given. There is a distinction between the small 

 fertile eggs such as are given in the locality table, and the 



