52 "BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



are easily domesticated. I saw a pair in a jacal at Brownsville that 

 could hardly be driven out of doors long enough for us to see them. 



The nest of this species is never found on the ground, but in trees and 

 bushes varying in height from four to ten feet. The structure varies in 

 composition and size according to its location. If it is in a large fork 

 close to the body of the tree, a few sticks, grasses, and leaves are sufia- 

 cient, and the structure will not equal in size or strength that of a 

 Mockingbird. This small size is by far the most frequent; but I have a 

 nest built upon a fork of two small branches, composed entirely of Span- 

 ish moss. It is bulky and flat, being a foot ia diameter and four inches 

 deep, with a depression four inches wide and two deep. The bird begins 

 to lay about the middle of April, and when I left that section on May 

 11 chicks were peeping in the eggs, and some nests were found with 

 broken shells and deserted. The birds are clean in their habits, no 

 excrement or litter being found in their nests. The most natural place 

 for them to build is in the undergrowth or thickets in the dense forests. 

 Their complement of eggs is three. I secured sixteen sets, and in no 

 instance were there more, and only twice less. In no instance were they 

 covered with leaves or anything else, as has been said. Nor does the 

 parent fly at the intruder or show any alarm. On the contrary, as soon 

 as she is observed, she darts into the thickets, as usual, without any note 

 of alarm or any show of fighting. More often, the bird flies off before 

 she has a chance of being seen, and the eggs can be seen as far as you 

 can see the nest. The first nest was found April 20, and contained its 

 full complement of three eggs. The location was above the camp in a 

 wesatche tree, close by a bridle-path, ut ed almost daily by the cavalry 

 in going to practice. The nest was some eight or nine feet above the 

 ground, in a crotch, and would not have been noticed had not the bird 

 flown as we came upon it while on horseback. This was by all odds the 

 fiost exposed place in which any nest was found. One nest I found in 

 the heart of the woods at Lomita Eanche, and the three eggs were so 

 much exposed that they were seen some time before the nest could be 

 distinguished. This nest was shallow, as a Pigeon's, and situated about 

 six feet from the ground on two small branches of a sapling. To 

 describe other nests would be but repetition. 



The eggs are remarkably large in proportion to the size of the bird's 

 body. They have very thick shells, resembling in this respect a Guinea- 

 fowFs egg, and of extreme hardness. Their shape is oblong-oval. They 

 are distinctly granulated and of a rich creamy-white. They are generally 

 remarkably clean. They are also very even in size. The largest meas- 

 ures 2.45 by 1.65, the smallest 2.31 by 1.55, and the average 2.34 by 1.60. 



226—^—22.00 X 24..50 x 7.50 x 9.50. Apr. 18, Hidalgo. 



269— ^ —23.00 X 26.50 x 8.50 x 10.50. Apr. 24, Hidalgo. 



270— 9 —21.50 X 25.00 x 8.00 x 9.00. Apr. 24, Hidalgo. 



271— <? —24.00 X 27.00 x 8.50 x 10.50. Apr. 24, Hidalgo. 

 311— <? —23.50 X 28.00 x 8.15 x 10.00. Apr. 30, Hidalgo. 



