1889.] BenvirE, West and Eggs of Zonotrichia querula. ISI 
During the summer of 1885, while I was stationed at Fort 
Custer, Montana, one of my men, who was well posted about the 
birds of that region, and helped me to collect a good many, while 
out hunting one day found a nest and four €ggs of some Sparrow, 
without, unfortunately, securing the parent, and brought them in 
for me. I saw at a glance that these eggs were new to me, and 
visited the place where the nest was found next day, in the hope 
of possibly still finding the owners about the locality, but failed 
in this. The eggs in question differ materially in coloration from 
those of the other species of Zonotrichia, as well as from those 
of the genera Passerella, Melospiza, and Pipzlo, all of which are 
represented by good series in the National Museum collection. 
The nest was found June 24, 1885, ina dense willow thicket 
close to the banks of Little Horn River, about one and a half 
miles above the post. It was placed between several young wil- 
low twigs, about eight or ten inches from the ground, compactly 
built of strips of decayed willow bark, coarse grasses, etc., and 
lined with finer materials of the same kind. Outwardly the nest 
was about four and a half inches wide by three deep; the inner 
cavity was two and a half inches wide by two in depth. In its 
general make-up it resembled the average nest of a Passerella. 
The eggs contained small embryos. They resemble certain types 
of Cardinal’s eggs ( Cardznalis cardinalis) more than anything 
else, but are considerably smaller. There is no trace of green 
whatever noticeable in their ground color. This green tint is 
always found to a greater or less extent in all the eggs of the gen- 
era Zonotrichia and Passerella, and with rare exceptions in 
Melospiza as well, while here, it is a creamy or buffy white, 
and the shell is also more lustrous. ‘The eggs are thickly spotted 
and blotched with dark brown and burnt umber, and more or less 
mixed with pale heliotrope purple and purplish gray. They are 
ovate in shape, and measure .89 X .70, .88 X .69,.86 X .69 and 
85 X .65 inch. 
I am certain that these eggs are not those of the Cardinal, 
which is not found as far north as Fort Custer and would surely 
have been noticed by me, if it occurred there, and unless they 
should be abnormally colored eggs of P¢pzlo maculatus arcticus, 
which is barely possible, although also rather small for this 
species, they will certainly prove to be those of Harris’s Sparrow. 
While I do not believe that it is a constant and common summer 
