Brewster oh the Golden-crcsicd Kimrlet. 



341 



from the branch above, while ^ts bottom rests iirmh on a brist- 

 ling platform of stems which rise from the branch below. Thus 

 it is at once pensile and non-pensile. 



The eighteen eggs making up the two sets above-mentioned 

 vary considerably in shape. The majority are more or less regu- 

 larly ovate, but several are elliptical-ovate, while two are very 

 nearly perfectly elliptical-oval. The ground color varies from 

 creamy white to exceedingly deep, often somewhat muddy, cream 

 color. Over this light ground are sprinkled numerous markings 

 of pale wood-brown, while at least three specimens have a few- 

 spots and blotches of faint lavender. The brown markings vary 

 in size from the finest possible dots to rather large blotches. In 

 most of the specimens they are distributed pretty thickly over 

 the entire shell, but in nearly all they are most numerous about 

 the larger ends where they form a more or less distinct wreath 

 pattern, while in four or five (and these have the lightest ground 

 color) they are nearly confined to the larger ends, the remainder 

 of the egg being very sparsely marked. Separating these eigh- 

 teen eggs into the two sets .to which they respectively belong, I 

 find that these sets resemble each other very closely in everv way, 

 each having specimens representing all the variations above 

 described excepting that all three of the eggs with lavender mark- 

 ings belong to the same set. In both sets the whitest, most 

 sparsely spotted eggs were the freshest, showing that they were 

 the last ones laid. 



Lest the detail of the above description mislead the reader as 

 to the general appearance of these eggs it may be well to add 

 that while there can be no doubt that the markings are genuine 

 pigment spots and not mere superficial stains (this has been 

 doxibted by some writers), they are, as a rule, so fine and so little 

 darker than the ground color, that many of the eggs when 

 viewed at a distance or in a poor light appear brownish cream 

 color and immaculate. The eggs just described measure respec- 

 tively : (Set A— 9) .56 X .44, .57 X . 44, .55 X .43, .57 X .43, 

 •57 X -44' -51 X -44' -5^ x .45, .57 x .44, .57 x .44 inches. 

 (Set B— 9) .56 X .44, .56 X .45, .-^z X .42. .59 X .45, .57 X .45, 

 •53 X.43, .57 X .45, .S(> X .44, .54 X .44 inches. 



In both nests the eggs, too numerous to find sufficient space 

 for their accommodation on the bottom of the nest, were piled 

 in two layers, one above the other. In the first nest the relative 



