76 SYLVIID^E : SYLVIANS. 



ground. The nest " consisted of a large ball of soft 

 moss, the whole forming a mass about 4^- inches in 

 diameter. The opening was at the top, and was about 

 ij inches across, and 2 inches deep. The nest was 

 in one of those bunches of thick growth so common 

 on many of our fir-trees, and contained ten eggs, of the 

 following dimensions : .52X-4-I; .5OX.4O; .5oX4i; 

 Sox. 41; -47X-39; -47X-39; -5 2 X.4i; .5ix.4i; 

 .50X-4I ; 50 X .41. The eggs are of a creamy-white 

 color, and are covered with very obscure spots, so 

 very obscure, in fact, that they merely give a dingy 

 or dirty tint to the egg ; and some to whom I have 

 shown them are doubtful if they are spots, but I re- 

 gard them as extremely obscure and confluent spots, 

 not on, but in, the shell. From the number of the 

 eggs, their extreme smallness, and the situation of the 

 nest, I have been inclined to believe it to be a King- 

 let's." This part of Dr. Brewer's article is copied from 

 a letter from Mr. Harry Merrill. The author speaks 

 of the eggs, after examination with a magnifier, as 

 follows : " I find the ground-color to be white with 

 shell-marks of purplish-slate, and a few obscure super- 

 ficial markings of a deep buff, giving to the ground 

 the effect of cream-color." The resemblance of the 

 egg to that of 7?. cristatus of Europe is stated to be 

 so close that the two are indistinguishable. This is, 

 I think, the second account ever given of the eggs 

 of the Golden-crest, the first having appeared in the 

 Journ. fur Ornith. for 1856, p. 23, with a figure (pi. I, 

 No. 8) . Mr. Minot's description of the nest was the 

 first to appear. C.] 



