206 Merrill's Oological Notes from Montana. 



was near the top of a ridge connecting two peaks, at an elevation of 8,000 

 feet. The nest was under a shelving stone, one of many exposed by a 

 land slide, and was in a little hollow dug out by the parents. The nest 

 was rather large, but well and compactly built, composed externally of 

 coarse dry grasses, with an inner lining of fine yellow straws and hairs of 

 the mountain sheep. The eggs, five in number, were far advanced in 

 incubation and one was broken in blowing. They measure .81X.60; 

 .S0X.59; .S4X.60; .83X. 60. The ground color of three of these eggs is a 

 dull yellowish-white, marked with spots and blotches of light reddish- 

 b.-own and with a few blotches of lavender. The.spots are scattered over 

 the entire surface of the eggs, but are largest and most numerous at the 

 larger end. The ground color of the fourth egg. the largest one, is a 

 rather greenish-white. 



Pipilo maculatus arcticus (Stvai/ts.) Coucs. — Though a common 

 species in many places, the eggs of the Northern Towhee are rare in 

 collections. In all parts of Montana I have found it abundant wherever a 

 stream with bordering underbrush afforded the needed shelter. There is 

 great diversity in the time of laying, or rather in the contents of nests 

 found on about the same dates from the middle of May until late in July, 

 which I attribute more to the great number of nests that must be destroyed 

 bv snakes, birds, and small mammals, and to the attempts of the parents 

 to raise another brood, than to any other cause. 



The nests are placed on the ground under some bush, a favorite place 

 being in one of the many small isolated growths of cherry brush that 

 are so often seen near streams flowing down many of the mountains in 

 this Territory; lower, on the plains, any growth of bushes or shrubbery 

 appear to answer as well. The rim of the nest is flush with the surface of 

 the ground, the birds scratching a hollow large enough to contain the 

 nest. These are well and strongly built; externally are placed dead leaves 

 and broad strips of bark; then a wall of finer strips of bark andblades of 

 dry grass, lined usually with yellow straws. The internal diameter is 

 about 24X2^. The complement of eggs is four or five, averaging .94X.69 

 in size. Five sets now before me are of two very distinct types. In two 

 of the sets the ground color is white, slightly tinged with greenish and 

 covered with dots and small spots of reddish-brown and lavender, most 

 numerous at the larger end, where a more or less distinct wreath is 

 formed. The other sets have the ground color scarcely distinguishable 

 on account of the very numerous markings which cover the entire surface 

 of the eggs and which do not tend to aggregate at the larger end ; the 

 appearance is that of a general suffusion of reddish and lilac brown. 



Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis, Baird. — The Red-naped Woodpecker 

 seems to be one of the rarest of its family in Montana, and I have met with 

 it on two occasions only, once near Fort Shaw and once in the Big Horn 

 Mountains. 



On the 1 2th of June a nest was found near the mouth of the canon of 

 the Little Big Horn River, a short distance below the point where the; pine 

 trees give place to cottonwoods. The nest-cavity was in a dead young 



