^^o.s.] SENXETT ON THE ORNITHOLOGY OF TEXAS. 377 



treasures vrcU, and are much disturbed when the nest is invaded; 

 though not until tliey see that their nest is actually being handled do 

 they give any cry of alarm, or other intimation of uneasiness than their 

 near presence. 



Lik(? all of their kind, these birds are very active and busy ; but at 

 the time of their rearing their young, I have sat and listened to the 

 male well up in the tree above my head, singing his whistHng relrain 

 for an hour at a time. A nest near the house was laid open with broad 

 cuts of an ax, and the young left fully exposed as on a shelf, but the 

 old ones reared them safely, and I saw them take wing. 



The Q^g is rounded oval ; but one end, being larger, has the n])pearance 

 of being rounder than the other. Tlie ground-color is clear dead white; 

 distributed unevenly over the whole surface, and not very sparingly, 

 are flecks and blotches of fawn-color of various shades, the sides hav- 

 ing rather more than either end. Its length is .00 of an inch and its 

 breadth .48 of an inch. The usual number of eggs which this Titmouse 

 lays in a clutch I must i)ut at six, as all the nests found contained that 

 number of young, except one, which had five. 



Young just from the egg are nude, with the exception of a few long, 

 dark, downy feathers on the back, nape, and over the eyes. The first 

 plumage is much like the adult's, but without the black crest. 



When about to send the MS. to Washington, I received from Mr. 

 Bourbois, at Lomita, a nest and four eggs of this species, taken about 

 April 1, 1879, on his ranch. The nest is smaller and more frail_thau 

 the one I obtained, and composed of about equal parts of fine inner bark 

 and wool, with which are intermingled many bits of snake-skins. Of its 

 location I have not yet received notes. The eggs were fresh, and vary 

 much in size and markings. The ground-color is pinkish-white. The 

 spots of reddish-brown are small and few in number, and scattered over 

 the greater part of the egg, but at the larger end they are large and 

 numerous, covering nearly the whole end, though in no case forming a 

 ring. In shape they are round at one end, and round-pointed at the 

 other, with the greatest diameter near the centre. Their sizes are respect- 

 ively .70 by .55 ; .69 by .55 ; .03 by .54 ; .00 by .40. 



In Mr. Brewster's notes (Bull. Kut. Orn. Club, vol. iv, l^o. 2, April, 

 1879, page 70), the measurements given of the three eggs in Mr. Iliek- 

 secker's collection are considerably larger than my single specimen 

 described at the head of this article, and previously given in " Science 

 News," voh i, No. 4, p. 57. But, by comparison with the sizes of the 

 present set, it will be seen that my first egg was not so great an excep- 

 tion in size as Mr. Eicksecker's eggs would lead one to suppose. It will 

 be noticed that the largest egg of my set of four is still smaller than the 

 smallest of his, and that of this last set of four one is even smaller than 

 the one I obtained in 1878. 



