August 26, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



283 



of greater or less time. The strange female 

 which I introduced to one of the males had to 

 remain for several weeks in a small cage inside 

 of the larger cage in which the male was con- 

 fined in order to prevent the sanguinary quar- 

 rels in which the birds engaged. At times 

 one would be the victor and again the other; 

 but generally it was the male bird that was 

 triumphant. The victor in every case so 

 bullied and annoyed the vanquished that the 

 life of the conquered birds was, for the time, 

 rendered miserable. However, all this was 

 remedied by time and the birds came ulti- 

 mately to a satisfactory understanding. 



About the middle of May it was evident 

 that they wished to build nests ; any straw or 

 stray feather in the bottom of the cage was 

 eagerly taken and attempts were made to place 

 such material in some secure position. I now 

 put branches in both of the cages, with what 

 I considered suitable forks in which the birds 

 might build the characteristic nests of wild 

 grosbeaks. I also placed in the cage rootlets, 

 straw, small sticks and twigs, in short, as 

 nearly as I could, the same material that I 

 found in the nests of wild rose-breasted gros- 

 beaks. These the birds eagerly availed them- 

 selves of and for ten days or more engaged 

 themselves most busily in abortive attempts 

 at nest-building. They seemed unable to ar- 

 range a suitable foundation of rootlets and 

 twigs in any of the crotches or branches I had 

 given them, and after this thing had gone on 

 for two weeks and no progress had been made, 

 I determined to give them artificial nests. 

 These were the kind of nests supplied to 

 canary birds, being wire baskets of fine mesh 

 into which a felting of cowhair was securely 

 sewed. 



In both cases the grosbeaks availed them- 

 selves of these nests at once and proceeded to 

 utilize feathers and some extra cowhair that 

 I had given them to complete the lining of the 

 structure. In four days after receiving these 

 nests both females began to lay; but, though 

 each female laid a full complement of eggs, 

 these were generally broken by the birds. The 

 first three or four egg's Md had hard shells 

 and after that each of the females laid several 

 eggs with soft shells. The way that I account 



for the eggs being broken is that both birds 

 of each pair, after an egg had been laid in the 

 nest, continued their efforts to build a struc- 

 ture more to their liking, and that it was their 

 claws as they trampled about that perforated 

 the shell of the eggs already laid. 



After the first laying which I have described 

 as abortive, an interval of perhaps a week in- 

 tervened, when laying began again with almost 

 precisely the same results. All this time the 

 males were constantly singing, courting the 

 females, feeding them, caressing them, and the 

 operation of treading was frequently witnessed 

 throxighout the day. 



While I am not prepared to conclude that 

 the grosbeaks would not have built a nest, if 

 furnished with more commodious quarters and 

 nearer like the condition of affairs that exist 

 out of doors, I conclude that so far as nest- 

 building in cages is concerned they are unable 

 to accomplish anything. So far as the song 

 is concerned I believe that they inherit the 

 call-notes of both pleasure and fear, but that 

 the song of the males was an imitation of the 

 song of a bird that strongly impressed them 

 during the period when they were cultivating 

 this secondary sexual characteristic. 



William E. D. Scott. 



Princeton University, 

 August 8, 1904. 



CURRENT NOTE 8 ON METEOROLOGY. 



UTILIZATION OP FOG. 



In the Monthly Weather Review, XXXIL, 

 No. 4, 1904, the suggestion is made by a 

 writer in San Diego, Cal., that an instrument 

 consisting of a wire frame-work be contrived, 

 which shall collect fog particles, conduct the 

 drops into a rain-gauge, and thus make the 

 measurement of fog possible. The object of 

 this measurement would be to show that in 

 such a region as southern California, where 

 the rainfall is small and where there is a good 

 deal of fog, the fog deposit is a considerable 

 one, and is of noteworthy importance to vegeta- 

 tion. In his comments on this suggestion. 

 Professor Abbe rightly points out that it 

 would be difficult, if not impossible, to argue 

 from the catch of a fog screen to the catch 

 of an orchard of trees ; that the ' fog depositor ' 



