18S7.] General Notes. 1 67 



and sparsely clothed with first plumage, which above and across the breast 

 is uniform grayish-brown, on the abdomen yellowish-white. There are two 

 light (brownish-white) bars on the wing-coverts. 



If I am not mistaken, the nests and eggs just described are' the first iden- 

 tified ones that have been thus far reported, but Captain Bendire writes 

 me that he has what he believes to be "a set of these eggs taken at the 

 Big Meadows on the banks of the Des Chutes River near its headwaters' 

 on my way from Fort Walla Walla, W. T., to Fort Klamath, Oregon' 

 June 12, 1S82. The nest was placed in the crotch of a willow overhanging 

 the water, and the parent shot, but falling into the river was carried 

 away. The eggs have a fajnt grayish-green ground color; two of them 

 are heavily spotted and blotched with lilac and dark umber brown. They 

 are about the size of the e<^s of D. (estiva, and resemble the eggs of D. 

 blackbur>iia>., with the exception of the ground color, the green of which 

 is not as perceptible as in the eggs of blacAb/ir//ia:." — William Brewster, 

 Cambridge, Mass. 



What constitutes a Full Set of Eggs ? — The question as to what con- 

 stitutes a full set of e^gs, and how to determine the number with any cer- 

 tainty, is a matter to which I desire to call attention, and, in doing so, will 

 say that I have given the matter considerable thought, and have reached 

 the conclusion, on account of the many nest robbers of the birds, that the 

 larger number is the only safe one to enter as a full set. For example, say 

 thirty nests of first sets of a species are found, with birds sitting, as follows : 

 Four nests with four eggs in each ; six nests with three e^s in each; 

 ten nests with two eggs in each ; and ten nests with one egg in each. In 

 this case I would enter three and four — possibly two to four — as a full 

 set. But in no case one to four, believing the undisturbed birds of a 

 species do not vary much, if any, as to number of eggs laid. Sav four 

 eggs in first set, and three in the second; that is, in case the first set is 

 destroyed, or the birds rear two or more broods in a season; for I find as 

 a rule that the first set is the larger one. 



Many of the birds, especially the larger ones that breed in trees, as 

 Hawks, Herons, etc., cannot hide their bulky nests; in fact, the branches 

 overhead are more a protection to the thieves than to the nests when the 

 parent birds are away; for all birds, however watchful, will, dining the 

 early stages of laying and love making, steal away from their nests a short 

 time, for a sail or flirtation, which affords the cunning Crows, Jays, squir- 

 rels, etc., an opportunity to come up from the lower limbs and steal the 

 eggs unobserved, or before the parent birds can return to protect them. 

 Such robberies, and the advancement of incubation, make the birds more 

 watchful and closer sitters. But, with all their vigilance, I think to find a 

 full set the exception and not the rule. It is to the interest of paid collec- 

 tors and dealers in eggs to have the smaller as well as the larger number 

 treated as full sets. But the odlogist at heart, whether a collector or not, 

 can have but one desire, and that is to arrive at the facts in the case. 



In my 'Revised Catalogue of the Birds of Kansas,' I was governed in 



