12 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



range, except once, while the gun was being reloaded. The eggs 

 were all laid after Mr. Bennett's visit, April 9 ; and their contents 

 showed, April 19, that they had been incubated but a day or two. 

 Incubation seems, in this case, to have commenced several weeks 

 later than usual, which may be owing to the late snows and unusual 

 coldness of the weather this year, during the first half of April. 



" Location and Description of the Eyrie. The situation of the 

 eyrie was near the highest part of the mountain, about one-third of 

 the length of the mountain from the south end, on a narrow shelf 

 in the rock, eight or ten feet from the top of a nearly perpendicular 

 cliff, one hundred and fifty or two hundred feet in height, and was 

 inaccessible except to a bold climber, and at one particular point. 

 The nest was merely a slight excavation, sufficient to contain the 

 eggs : no accessory material had been added. The site had been 

 previously occupied, and probably for several years ; and, for weeks 

 before the eggs were laid, was carefully guarded by the bold and 

 watchful birds. 



" Description of the Eggs. The eggs, four in number, as already 

 stated, differ greatly both in shape and coloring ; the extremes in 

 either being widely diverse. They are described in detail, and 

 probably in the same order as laid. 



"No. 1. Longer diameter, 2.18 inches; shorter diameter, 1.71 

 inches: the shorter diameter is .885 the longer. The form is 

 somewhat ovoid, one end being slightly larger than the other ; but 

 neither end is very pointed: the point of greatest transverse 

 diameter is .645 the length of the egg from the smallest end. In 

 form, this egg is very nearly like the egg from Greenland, figured 

 by Dr. Brewer in the * North- American Oology ' (pt. I. plate II. 

 fig. 11). The general color is chocolate-brown, darker and more 

 dense and uniform about the ends, the part about the middle being 

 lighter, varied with small irregular blotches and specks of a darker 

 tint than the ground-color. The color of the smaller end is nearly 

 a uniform dull-red ochre. There is also an irregular belt of scat- 

 tered and apparently very superficial blotches of very dark brown, 

 or nearly black. Something similar is often noticed on the eggs 

 of many birds that lay brown or speckled eggs. 



"No. 2. Longer diameter, 2.21 inches; shorter diameter, 1.67 

 inches : shorter diameter, .755 the longer. Form, nearly an ellip- 

 soid, the point of greatest transverse diameter being scarcely to 



