Nov. 1886. ] 
ant bird owing to lack of food—a small minnow 
which inhabits the streams but are scarce. Have 
seen but two specimens of this bird, one of which 
(a ¢@) I have mounted for parties here. Too 
well known for further comment. 
Green-tailed Towhee, (P. chlorurus). Very 
common on the mesas in the thickets or scrub 
oak; a very shy bird and rarely seen except when 
flitting from one bush to another. The nest I 
have not found and I think it is pretty well con- 
cealed, but this spring I was surprised to find so 
many eggs (broken) lying about at the foot of the 
oak bushes, and believe they are of this bird, be- 
ing white with red spots, but of this I am not 
positive. A very pretty Towhee. The descrip- 
tion given by Dr. Coues in the “Key.” is all right 
except as to dimensions. Length, 513; wing, 4; 
tail, 314; tarsi, 124. I will say here, that I meas- 
ure all specimens in the field and as soon as shot. 
The dimensions given in these notes are averaged 
from all birds of a species obtained. As I am 
writing on birds of one locality and collected by 
myself I am not obliged to examine skins which 
might be stretched or shrunken, as I would be 
obliged to do in the case of birds from parts of 
the country in which I had not collected. I 
make this statement asa sort of an apology for 
differing somewhat from older and more experi- 
enced writers, but I fully believe that we should 
state things just as we find them, and not feel at 
all diffident about it, as by so doing the study of 
ornithology is advanced faster and surer. Too 
many of our young writers are apt (because their 
observations do not concur with those of the sci- 
entist) to keep their notes in their note books, 
whereas if they would give them to the ornith- 
ological world the science would be benefited 
and their efforts more highly appreciated. Beg- 
ging the reader’s pardon. for digressing, I will 
continue my notes with the 
Long-crested Jay, (C. stellerd macrolepha). Very 
common in the pine timber, going about in 
troupes of from six to twenty or fifty. They 
have a variety of notes, one much like the Blue 
Jay (C. cristata), another call note much like that 
of the Magpie (P. rustico nuttalii) also when dis- 
turbed it scolds in a voice like no other jay. I 
have heard that when on the wing or perched in a 
tree it looks like quite a small bird, and one will 
be surprised to find it so large when in the hand, 
—about a foot in length. Wing about 5; tail 
about 6. These measurements are from a dilapi- 
dated specimen and so I do not vouch for the ac- 
curacy of them. They are hard to approach, 
and although I have seen immense troupes of them 
I have only been able to shoot but the specimen 
above mentioned, which I killed with No. 6 shot 
while hunting prairie chickens. 
AND OOLOGIST. 
165 
Observations on the Development 
and the Decay of the Pigment Layer 
on Birds’ Eggs. 
BY ALEXANDER M. M’ALDOWIE, M. D., VICE-PRESI- 
DENT OF THE NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE NA- 
TURALISTS’ FIELD CLUB, ENGLAND. 
Read Before the North Staffordshire Field Olub. 
PART II. 
SPECIFIC DECOLORISATION. 
In examining the evidence of decolorisation of 
eggs, it will be necessary to enter somewhat into 
the details of the modification of several groups 
of birds to show the various ways in which the 
eggs are protected from the stimulating influence 
of sunlight. With reference to this, eggs may be 
divided into three classes, viz.:—(1) those laid in 
holes or covered nests, (2) those which are covered 
by the parent bird with leaves, weeds, &c., and 
(3) tiose covered by an incrustation of calcareous 
matter. The eggs of nocturnal birds are white or 
faintly coloured but are included in the above. 
1. Hggs deposited in holes or covered nests. 
The egg of a woodpecker, or any bird where 
the whole of ‘the family lay white eggs and are 
identical in their mode of nesting, affords no evi- 
dence of decolorisation. But when we find one 
species only in a family laying in a covered nest, 
and its eggs white or faintly coloured, whilst 
those of the other members are laid in open sites 
and are highly pigmented, we may fairly argue 
that the pigment covering has degenerated or 
vanished. Thus all the Thrush family lay richly 
coloured eggs in open sites, whilst the Dipper, a 
closely allied species, lays a white egg in a domed 
edifice. The egg of the Black Redstart, one of a 
genus where all the other members lay coloured 
eggs, is exceptionally pure and white. Again, 
the Auk tribe is notable for laying bright coloured 
eggs on bare ledges on the cliffs; whilst the 
Puffin, one of the family which breeds in rabbit 
holes, lays an egg, described by Hewitson as 
“sometimes spotless, but more frequently marked 
with various tints of colour, but so very faint and 
indeterminate as to appear as though they were 
seen through the shell.” The Wheatear is a good 
example of an egg which has undergone almost 
complete decolorisation. One of the most inter- 
esting cases is that of the Virginian Quail. This 
is the only one of our gallinaceous birds which 
builds a dome-shaped nest, or, indeed, may be 
said to build any nest at all. Yarrell states that 
the eggs are white, although Hewitson figures one 
of a faint buffy tint, with minute spots. All the 
