l6 NESTS AND EGGS OF BIRDS. 



composed of maple leaves, upon which the superstnicture was 

 woven of coarse grasses, and lined with fine roots and grasses. 

 The measured dimensions were : external diameter, 4.50 

 inches; internal, 2.60; depth inside, 1.60. 



Since the above was written. Dr. Brewer announces (Bull. 

 Nutt. Orn. Club, III, 193) the finding in Vermont of a large 

 and bulky nest of the veery saddled on the horizontal limb of 

 a tree fifteen feet high. Previously, it appeals, Mr. George O. 

 Welch had met with a similar case, where the elevation of the 

 nest was twenty-five feet. 



The eggs are a deeper shade of bluish green than those of the 

 hermit thrush, but not so dark as those of the cat-bird ; their 

 form i^ generally oval, sometimes lengthened and sharpened ; 

 their average size is about .93 by .dd. As in many other eggs, 

 the longest specimens are not always the broadest. Mr, Allen 

 states that at Fort Rice, on the Upper Missouri, among many 

 nests containing the ordinary green eggs, one set was found 

 thickly speckled with very small dots of olive. This has 

 lately been duplicated by the four eggs found in the Vermont 

 nest mentioned above, where the eggs were spotted, one very 

 strongly with golden brown, the others less so. In Massachu- 

 setts and in Michigan, the first set of four or five eggs is laid 

 about June i ; the second set, three or four, in July. 



The female's anxiety for the concealment of her home is 

 very great, and when she hears your approach she steals away, 

 and will not return while you are near, skulking about in si- 

 lence, or with an occasional low complaint. Such has been 

 my experience ; yet Mr. Gentry records that near Philadelphia 

 the female does not exercise the least precaution by keeping 

 silence, but allows her over-solicitude to betray at once the sit- 

 uation of her precious charge. 



7. THE MOUNTAIN MOCKING-BIRD. 



OREOSCOPTES MONT ANUS {^Towiis.) Baird. 



Mocking-Bird (Wyoming, Montana) ; Sage Thrasher. 



The western mocker ranges from the Black Hills to the 

 Pacijic Coast., between Cape St. Lucas and British America, 



