AMERICAN ORNl THOL OG ) . 



199 



NEST AND EGGS. 



Very little is known of the breeding habits of this bird. Mr. C. J. 

 Maynard procured a set of six eggs on July 24, 1885. In 1889 a nest was 

 found near West Tisbury, by a school girl, containing seven eggs. This 

 was found the latter part of June in the scrub on the ground. A female 

 was captured alive in middle of June, 1892. This bird laid one egg while 

 in captivity, which was unfortunately destroyed by rats. Only one other 

 egg is known to the writer, it was taken from the oviduct of a female in 

 the Autumn of 1896. The dimensions of the Maynard set were: — length, 

 one and thirteen-sixteenths to one and two-thirds inches. The greatest 

 width of all five eggs of this set was one and one-fourth inches. The 

 length of the egg taken from the oviduct was one and one-half inches; 

 width one and one-eighth inches. The color of the eggs taken by Mr. 

 Maynard were creamy buff with a greenish tint and unspotted. The color 

 of the single egg given above was much lighter, which can be accounted 

 for from the fact that the color had not been deposited on the egg. 



Thus closed the history of one more interesting member of our New 

 England fauna, which, with the wild turkey has disappeared from the 

 Eastern states forever, and can only be represented in the future by its 

 introduced Western relatives. 



