■ 9 



The average number o( eggs vn .1 set estimated on lis * 

 having a total of two hundred and eighty-one i .. 

 four plus, the largest being seveiiti and the smallest two, the 

 latter howevei maj nol have been a completed set. though it 

 went on to Pull incubation, In emergency . comple- 



ments of eggs laid after i previous set had been destroyed hv 

 Knglish Sparrows or storms, smaller numbers prevail. 



The average weight of a first egg was found to be 36 grains (18 



wi (jhts averaged), the extremes of weights being 32 grains and 



.,.-.- Some sots are extremely variable in the weight of the 



. therein, one sot of Four eggs giving weights • and 



trains, while another complement of eggs weighed 35, 



I • and 36 grains respectively. The average length was T7 inch, 



and the diameter 51 inch, the extremes in length being 81 



inch for the maximum ami ,68 inch for the minimum, while the 



extremes in diameter were .57 and M inch respectively . 



The earliest date on which an egg has been detected in a nest 

 March 12, and the latest (counting the date on which the egg was 

 was Julj 

 \ •. a female begins to lay, one egg is laid each day until • set 

 ompleted, It is quite rare that the daily eruption of an egg - 

 disturbed or intermitted; in 68 sets recorded during five years 

 there have been but two in which this orderly succession of an 



\ has not obtained, and it is quite possible that OB one of these 



isions the interruption was due to the sudden onset of extremely 



cold weather. So far as the writer has been able to determine, the 



- are always laid at nig] between the hours of 1 t M and 



v v man) nests having been examined rep at short 



,.\als during al reference to this particular 



N\ . '•. the larger set Knds an eg 



the nest, presumably accidentally crowded out, 



• al times infertile or undeveloped eggs have been found 

 \ .he set ha vine co- M 



OUng birds | 

 ally pushed out sv 





