310 ORNITHOLOGY AND OOLOGY. 



Female similar, but smaller; immature male with the black of the head replaced 

 by dark chestnut-brown, the white tinged with brownish-yellow. 



The white of the crown separates two black lines on either sides, rather narrower 

 than itself; the black line behind the eye is continued anterior to it into the black 

 at the base of the bill; the lower eyelid is white; there are some obscure cloudings 

 of darker on the neck above ; the rump is immaculate ; no white on the tail, except 

 very obscure tips ; the white crosses the ends of the middle and greater coverts. 



Length, seven and ten one-hundredths inches ; wing, three and twenty-five one- 

 hundredths. 



This beautiful bird is a rare spring and autumn visitor 

 in New England. It arrives about the first week in May, 

 sometimes as late as the 20th of that month, and returns 

 from the North about the 10th of October. While with 

 us, it has all the habits of the succeeding species, with 

 which it usually associates. 



The following description of its breeding habits, nest, and 

 eggs, is given by Audubon : 



" One day, while near American Harbor, in Labrador, I observed 

 a pair of these birds resorting to a small 'hummock' of firs, where 

 I concluded they must have had a nest. After searching in vain, I 

 intimated my suspicion to my young friends, when we all crept 

 through the tangled branches, and examined the place without suc- 

 cess. . . . Our disappointment was the greater, that we saw the 

 male bird frequently flying about with food in his bill, no doubt 

 intended for his mate. In a short while, the pair came near us, 

 and both were shot. In the female we found an egg, which was 

 pure-white, but with the shell yet soft and thin. On the 6th of 

 July, while my son was creeping among some low bushes to get a 

 shot at some Red-throated Divers, he accidentally started a female 

 from her nest. It made much complaint. The nest was placed in 

 the moss, near the foot of a low fir, and was formed externally of 

 beautiful dry green moss, matted in bunches, like the coarse hair 

 of some quadruped; internally of very fine dry grass, arranged 

 with great neatness to the thickness of nearly half an inch, with a 

 full lining of delicate fibrous roots of a rich transparent yellow. 

 It was five inches in diameter externally, two in depth ; two and a 

 quarter in diameter within, although rather oblong, and one and 

 three-quarters deep. In one nest, we found a single feather of the 

 Willow Grouse. The eggs, five in number, average seven-eighths 



