124 
ORNITHOLOGIST 
[Vol. 11-No. 8 


from it three eggs, so the same birds vary the 
number of eggs in different years. I took a set of 
two from another nest in 1885 and about two 
hundred yards from it I found a nest of the Red- 
tailed Hawk. This year (in February) I took a 
set of two owls from the hawks’ nest and kept a 
sharp lookout to see ifthe hawks would complete 
the exchange by taking possession of the owl’s 
nest; but they did not do so, preferring to build 
about a quarter of a mile further up the branch. 
On April 138th I took the “second lay” (two 
eggs) out of the same nest where I took the set in 
February. Eggs on February 4th measured 2.21x 
1.79 and 2.19x1.81. Those taken April 13th, 2.05 
x1.76 and 2.08x1.76, the second lay being a little 
the smallest. The set of three taken January 30th 
averaged about 2.11x1.74, their measurements be- 
ing as follows: 2.15x1.76, 2.12x1.74 and 2.07x1.73. 
A set of two eggs of this species in my collection 
measure 2.33x1.83, and 2.25x1.81. These are the 
largest I have ever seen. They were collected in 
Kansas, April 4th, 1886, and the collector, (G. F. 
Brenninger,) in a note on the back of the data says, 
“This is second set of No. 405 taken from same 
nest.” Probably the first set would average larger. 
Coues in his Key (revised edition) gives the size as 
“about 2.25x1.90.” Davies, in the first edition of 
his Check List of N. A. Birds gives it as “2.80x 
2.00.” In his Key to the Nest and Eggs of N. A. 
Birds 1 see that Davie now follows Coues, and 
gives the size as above, “2.25x1.90.” I have yet 
to find a nest containing more than three eggs and 
would like to know if any collector has found 
from four to six. 
(Mr. J. W. Preston, of Baxter, lowa, found four eggs in 
one nest on March 1, 1881. (See ORNITHOLOGIST AND 
OoLoaist for April, 1886, Vol. XI, p. 53). This is a very un- 
usual number, however, and two or three only are com- 
monly found.—ED.] 
~~ 
White Eggs of the Bluebird. 

BY B. W. EVERMANN, BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA. 

In reading the article by W. E. Treat, in the 
April ORNITHOLOGIST AND O6LOGIST, concerning 
white eggs of the Bluebird, (Stadia sialis) it called 
to mind a similar experience which I had with a 
pair of Bluebirds not long ago. 
In the spring of 1884, I put up a box in my 
garden, at Camden, Ind., and it was soon appro- 
priated by a pair of these birds. On May 5th I 
examined the nest and found five fresh, pure white 
eggs. Before taking the set I put up another box 
near by, hoping that when robbed of the first set 
they would go to the second box and lay again. 
Searcely had the eggs been removed when the 
birds began carrying nest materials into the secord 
box. I was curious to know if this set would 
also be white, and watched them carefully. On 
May 14th, the first egg of this set was deposited, 
and the set of five completed on the 18th. These 
too, were pure white. I left them in the nest until 
the 20th, to see if the set was completed, and also 
to learn if the eggs were fertile. Five was the 
full complement, and, on blowing I found them 
all fertile. On May 21st the birds began rebuild- 
ing in the box first used by them, but from which 
I had removed most of the old nest. On my re- 
turn home June 1st, after an absence of ten days, 
I found the nest completed and three eggs in it. 
Two days later there were five, all pure white, 
as had been the other ten. I could not make up 
my mind to take these eggs, but left them to be 
hatched. The old bird began sitting June 3d. 
Ten days later, while working in my garden I 
failed to see the male about. As I was accustomed 
to see him almost every day, I wondered what 
could be wrong. The next day I watched for 
him but saw him not. Then I went to the scant- 
ling upon which the box was fastened and struck 
it, but no bird flew from the nest. Something 
was undoubtedly wrong. Securing a ladder I 
climbed to the box and there, lying in the nest, 
was the decaying body of the female, and beneath 
her the five eggs, all more or less crushed and 
with embryos well developed. The true explana- 
tion, I believe, suggested itself at once. The vital 
economy of the female had been too severely 
taxed; the building of three nests inside of thirty 
days, the loss of vital energy incident to the de- 
velopment of fifteen eggs in a like length of time, 
followed by the no less arduous and exhausting 
labors of incubation, all these were more than the 
frail organism could accomplish and she died a 
martyr to her maternal instinct. 
mee Seats) 
Notes from Silver City, N. M. 

BY CHARLES H. MARSH. 

November 10, 1885, while returning from a 
collecting trip I shot in a thick clump of bushes 
near my house, an Audubon’s Warbler. The 
bird was a young male, though in very good 
plumage, and was certainly a very late migrant, 
as it had been nearly two months since the last 
of the Warblers had left this section, my last re- 
corded observation being Sept. 15, when a few 
Pileated Warblers, usually the last to depart, were 
seen. In fact, on looking over my note book I 
do not find the Audubon’s Warblers mentioned 
as being observed at all during the fall, being 
quite conspicuous for their absence, as they were 
the most abundant of the Warblers in this neigh- 
borhood during April and May. 
