N 
THE NATURALIST. 
No. 4. 
OTTOWACo., MIcH., MAY I0, 1891. 
Found a nest of the Phoebe with 
six eggs in it, which I took. Nest 
was plastered to the side of a 
beam of an old bridge about two 
feet above the water. Was made 
of grasses and mud, lined with fine, 
dry grasses and hen feathers; was 
covered externally with fine, dry 
moss. Eggs, spotted very dis- 
tinctly, which three measured 
20x15; and the rest 21x15; 21x16; 
and 19xI4 mm. 
No, 5. 
LINN Co., IA., MAY 14, 1892. 
Found a nest of the Phoebe con- 
taining seven eggs, which I took. 
The nest was made of clay and 
straws covered with lichens and 
fine bark externally. Lined with 
down from hens and ducks. Was 
very bulky for this species, but 
neat, compact and exceedingly 
well made. Was on the south 
side of a part of a brick wall, the 
only remains of some brick house 
or store that had burnt to the 
ground, The female parent had 
an abnormal white patch, about the 
size and shape of a nickel five-cent 
piece on the side of her neck. 
Eggs advanced in incubation, 7 
in number, four of which were 
spotted with a few large patches of 
reddish brown. The other three 
were pure white. 
No, 6; 
KENT Co., MICH., MAY 6, 1893. 
Found a nest of the Phoebe 
which I took with the five eggs it 
contained of its own and one of 
the Cowbird. Nest was made of 
mud and fine rootlets, covered with 
dry moss and lined with horse 
and cow hair and wool. Was on 
the top of a column of a porch of 
an inhabited house. The parent 
birds did not seem to be annoyed 
in the least by the fact that the 
inmates of the house were con- 
tinually passing in and out directly 
under the nest. The house was 
across the road from a small grove. 
The eggs were spotted in a wreath 
around the greater end with spots 
about the size of a pin-head and of 
a rusty brown color. 
No. 7. 
KENT Co., MICH., TUESDAY, 
APRIL 26, 1894. 
Found a nest of the Phoebe 
fully completed but containing 
nothing, simply nothing at all. 
t was placed under a stone rail- 
road bridge, plastered to the per- 
pendicular side about two feet 
above the running water of Carrier 
creek. Was made of mud and 
fine grasses, covered with growing 
moss and lined with black rootlets, 
fine, dry grasses and _ horse hair, 
Was very compactly and neatly 
made. It was one of the most 
beautiful nests of this species I 
ever saw; the growing green moss 
with which it was covered making 
it strikingly pretty. 
A series of 35 eggs average 
20 1-35X15 6-35 mm. If measure- 
ments are wanted in hundredths 
of inches, multiply by four and 
point off two decimal places. 
The above are some extracts 
from my notes, showing the vari- 
ations in nesting dates, sites, nests, 
eggs, clutches and other nesting 
habits; also a typical set and nest- 
ing-site (No. 2.). 
I will now close with a few 
random remarks on peculiar oc- 
currences recorded by other ob- 
servers. In the Ornithologist and 
Oologist for December, 1892, 
Arthur M. Farmer records the fol- 
lowing: “On May 22d of that 
