May, 1886. ] 
2: 2.31x1.87. Dingy white, stained, marked with 
blotches and specks of dark brown, principally 
near the larger end. No. 3: 2.34x1.88. Dingy 
white, much stained. Marked all over the sur- 
face with bright brown streaks and specks. 
Set XXI. Oxford, Mississippi, April 8, 1885. 
No, 1: 2.22x1.76. Light bluish white, slightly 
stained. Marked with a few very dark and large 
blotches of brown, mostly at the smaller end. No. 
2: 2.25x1.76. Light bluish white, slightly stained. 
Marked with a large number of light purplish 
specks all over the surface, and a few brown spots. 
No. 3: 2.22x1.76. Light bluish white, very heavily 
marked with very dark brown blotches. 

Curious Set of Eggs of the Wood 
Thrush. 
A very singular set of eggs of the Wood 
Thrush (//ylocichla mustelina) may be thus de- 
scribed : 
No. 1 measures 1.18x.84, and is of the normal 
color. 
No. 2 is 1.09x.83, and is also of the usual color. 
No. 3 is .87x.62, and is of the same color as the 
two preceding eggs. 
No. 4 is .88x.62 and is of a peculiar drab green- 
ish color. 
They were found at Milton, Mass., on June 
26, 1883, and the parent bird was seen. It will 
be noticed that the first two eggs are larger than 
the usual size for this bird, (which is from 1.00x 
.75 to 1.08x.70,) while the other two are ‘‘runts.” 
The greenish-drab one is different in color from 
any eggs of this species that the present writer 
has seen. 

A Season’s Notes from Bristol Coun- 
ty, Mass. 

A Brief Review from My Note Book of 1885. 
BY F. M. MERCK.—PART II. 
(Continued from page 39.) 

The Scarlet Tanagers were very numerous dur- 
ing the second week of June, and a nest was 
found June 17th, placed in a light forest oak. 
The handsome and vivacious Redstart is now 
in the full tide of his domestic cares, and I notice 
several of their neat structures as I walk through 
an alder thicket, where I also flushed a Wood- 
cock with a fluttering brood of young. 
The Least Flycatcher is heard about the houses 
in great numbers as he overlooks his mate, who 
probably is setting in a nest placed in the very 
same tree as last year, for Himpidonav is very much 
attached to his old resorts and often confines 
AND OOLOGIST. 69 
himself to the limit of a single orchard during his 
stay with us. 
June 8th I went down to spend a fortnight with 
my friend, Mr. F. H. C., and we spent our 
active time afield. Among the notes I find 
chronicled I extract a few only. Here I noted 
the Great-crested Flycatcher, which Mr. C. in- 
forms me is a very rare visitor in his section of 
the county, and is the first I have ever personally 
seen. Weare so fortunate as to find the nest in 
an old hollow limb of an ancient apple tree, and 
the four eggs it contains look very pretty as they 
lay upon their nest of the miscellaneous composi- 
tion of rabbits fur, hair, feathers, moss and a few 
bits of the cast skin of the snake. We visit the 
orchard tenanted by the Blue Yellow-backed 
Warblers and note their curious nests, and pretty 
delicate contents. The nest of the Ruby-throated 
Hummer is found, looking like a bunch of lichens 
which the wind had cast on the bare, horizontal 
branch of a “hornbeam” shrub. Mounting a con- 
venient stone wall we could look into the nest and 
see the tiny treasures it contained. 
A ride down the valley of the Palmer river 
gives me a glimpse of the outskirts of the Fish 
Hawk colony, but ali my friend’s stragetems, 
usually so successful in May, fail to secure me ¢ 
specimen of the bird for my collection, for now 
with no eggs to leave, and the young grown lusty, 
they do not return to their nests while the smell 
of cold iron is in the air. 
We notice on our ride a Chickadee fly from a 
hole in a birch stub, and my friend informs me 
that the same nest was occupied last season, pre- 
sumably by the same bird. A few nests of the 
Bobolink are found on the ground in the meadows, 
and the Quail is seen with her little brood, but at 
the note of alarm from the old bird the juveniles 
are invisible. During the latter part of June the 
early breeders have their troop of young on the 
wing, and by July 10th the immature birds of the 
year are plenty. 
July 17th a specimen of the Yellow-winged 
Sparrow is taken, and placed on record as the 
first local specimen. Again the Hairy Wood- 
peckers are noted, and doubtless they nested in my 
vicinity, as I think I saw the young birds. I 
found another nest of the Great-crested Flycatcher 
with young soon after my return from my visit, 
and could but wonder what induced this more 
tropical Flycatcher to breed with us so much 
more commonly than formerly, and in the same 
orchard that northern breeder, the Hairy Wood- 
pecker, to remain and excavate its home. Birds 
of widely different breeding range and locally 
rare must have been induced by some unknown 
phenomena to incubate in this county. 
