168 



OROTTHOLOGIST 



[Vol. 12-:N^o. 10 



Osprey, {Pdudion h((liitetns caroUnensis) . 

 7 sets of 1 

 47 u I. 2 



236 " " 3 



4 u u 4 



Long-eared Owl, (Asio xuilsoninnm). 

 1 set of 3 

 4 " "4 



Shoi't-eared Owl, {Aftio arcipitrinus) . 



4 sets of 5 

 Barred Owl, {Siirnium Jieuloslnim). 



24 sets of 2 



19 " " 3 

 Screech Owl, {Megascops asio). 



27 sets of 4 

 Great-horned Owl, {Bubo vmjianus). 



34 sets of 2 



Additional Notes on the Nesting of 

 the Ground Dove. 



BY T. D. PERUV, SAVANNAH, GEORGIA. 



In the O. AND O. for July, 1887, my article 

 on the Ground Dove elahns that their breeding 

 period covers a long period, and on its appear- 

 ance iu pi'int I was somewhat surprised to see 

 that it only calls for April, May, June and 

 July. But mistakes will happen, and so it was 

 with that article ; I was fully under the impres- 

 sion that I had sent all the notes, but it seems 

 not, so as a supplementary note I offer the 

 following : 



In the O. AND O. for October, 1886, a case is 

 reported of the finding of a nest with young on 

 October 10th, and it is stated that it is some- 

 thing remarkable, as they never breed later 

 than June. Now I think I can prove that eight 

 months out of the twelve is nothing unusual 

 for this species. 



In the Young Ornithologist I reported the find- 

 ing of a nest with young on October 10th, 1885. 

 The nest was found by Mr. George Noble. 



In the Youtig Oologist for May. 1884, I re- 

 ported the finding of a nest on August 31st, 

 with one fresh egg and I have no doubt but the 

 other would have been laid next day (Sep. 1st). 



In the same monthly, Vol. 1, No. 6, page 87, 

 a case is reported of the finding of a nest on 

 Sep. 11th. (Eggs incubated). 



Now including the dates I gave in my previ- 

 ous article, that makes seven consecutive months 

 and by good luck I am able to give one month 

 more. 



In March, 1887, Mr. George Noble, (to whom 

 the credit of finding the earliest and the latest 

 is due) and I went for a short stroll. lie called 

 out for me to come to him as he wanted to show 

 me something. I went and he showed me two 

 fresh eggs of the Ground Dove, and this was on 

 JNFarch 17th, 1887. This makes eight mouths 

 out of the twelve, and I believe that they breed 

 every month that the Common Pigeon does, 

 and some daj'^ I hope to be able to prove this. 



The Number of Eggs in a Set. 



BY LYNDS JONES, GRINNELE, IOWA. 



Walter Hoxie's '"The number of Eggs in a 

 Set," in the August number of the O. and O. 

 touches upon a subject which has hitherto re- 

 ceived too little attention at the hands of the 

 majority of oologists. 



But little reliance can be placed upon the 

 works of eastern writers upon the subjecit, as 

 the nest complement of many species in this 

 section varies greatly with the nest comple- 

 ment of the same species farther east. Take 

 the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, (Coccyzus american- 

 us) as an instance. Audubon jjlaced the num- 

 ber of eggs in a set up to eleven^ and authors of 

 the present day go as high as seven or eight. 

 Here in Iowa, I have collected many sets, and 

 watched carefully the process of bi-eeding from 

 the beginning of the nest until the abandon- 

 ment by the young, and never have I found 

 more than three eggs in a nest, and three only 

 once. Further than this, the young burst the 

 shell at the same time, showing even though 

 the nest had not been closely watched while 

 the mother bird was laying, that the eggs were 

 not laid at long intervals, as is the case in the 

 east. 



The nest complement of the Long-eared Owl, 

 {Asio accipitriniis) is four, seldom more, say 

 eastern observers ; five is the common set here, 

 and six are more often found than four. The 

 same might ap])ly to the Screech Owl {Scops 

 asio). 



The food supply, as Mr. Hoxie suggests, cer- 

 tainly governs, to a great extent, the number 

 of eggs in the clutch. The years from 1880 to 

 1885 were unusually wet years and consequent- 

 ly food was abundant. During these years sets 

 of five of Kobin, {Merula migratoria) and seven 

 of Bluebird, {Sialiu. sialis) were not uncommon, 

 and in the nests of a great many species whose 

 nest complement is usually four, as the Chat 

 {Icteria virens), Kingbird {Tyrannus carolinen- 



