142 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN DIVING BIRDS 



who thought they could find their nests, but in vain. The nesting 

 of the marbled murrelet is one of the unsolved mysteries in Ameri- 

 can ornithology. This is rather remarkable, too, because it is really 

 an abundant bird in a fairly accessible region. Mr. George G. Cant- 

 well (1898) took a nearly perfect specimen of an egg from the 

 oviduct of a bird shot in the Prince of Wales Archipelago on May 

 23, 1897, which is now in the United States National Museum col- 

 lection. He writes: 



A careful watch failed to reveal any nesting sites, and on inquiring of the 

 Indians about it they told me that they had always supposed the bird to breed 

 high up on the mountains in hollow trees. One old fellow declared he had 

 found the young in such places. As I had previously noticed the birds flying 

 about high overhead at dusk I resolved to look into the matter and spent many 

 hours searching for them in the woods, but without success. 



It seems hardly likely that these birds should nest in hollow trees, 

 but there is some evidence to indicate that they breed somewhere 

 in the mountains, perhaps in holes or crevices in the rocks or under 

 large stones. Dr. Joseph Grinnell (18976) says that the Indians 

 hear them "at night passing high over the mountains and islands." 

 And Mr. W. L. Dawson (1909) writes: 



At Glacier, on the North Fork of the Nooksack River, and near the foot 

 of Mount Baker, having risen before daybreak for an early bird walk, on the 

 morning of May 11, 1905, I heard voices from an invisible party of marbled 

 murrelets high in the air as they proceeded down the valley as though to repair 

 to the sea for the day's fishing. 



Eggs. The egg, referred to above as taken from the oviduct of a 

 bird by Mr. Cantwell, is apparently the only positively identified 

 egg of this species in existence. It is "cylindrical ovate" in shape. 

 The ground color is "pale chalcedony yellow"; it is uniformly, but 

 not thickly spotted with small spots of very dark "blackish brown" 

 or nearly black. It is too badly broken to be measured accurately. 

 There are two eggs in the United States National Museum, collected 

 by Ferd. Bischoff at Sitka, Alaska, in June 1866, which are supposed 

 to be eggs of the marbled murrelet. Major Bendire was evidently 

 in doubt about the authenticity of these eggs, but they are much 

 smaller than any of our large series of ancient murrelets' eggs and 

 different in shape; they closely resemble certain eggs of Xantus's 

 murrelet, which might be expected in such a closely related species. 

 In shape they are elongate ovate. In one the ground color is "pink- 

 ish buff," which is heavily blotched, splashed and clouded about 

 both ends with "cinnamon brown" and some darker shades. In 

 the other the ground color is "light buff," which is more evenly cov- 

 ered with small spots of drab and dark browns, also splashed and 

 washed about both ends with "snuff brown" and lighter shades of 

 brown. These two eggs measure 54 by 36 and 54 by 36.2 millimeters 



