261 



THE OOLOGIST 



focus, for at such close range every 

 fraction of an inch counted. If the 

 camera was set for the front edge of 

 the fountain then any birds that hap- 

 pened to be on the back edge would 

 be blurred in the negative, and the 

 same was true if the machine was set 

 for the back. To remedy this we made 

 a high back from which it was impos- 

 sible to drink, and a top that only left 

 a strip of water about two inches wide 

 exposed at the back. This latter was 

 movable, and it was only in place 

 when we wished to take a picture. 



We now moved the camera closer 

 and secured some excellent photo- 

 graphs, some of the best of which ac- 

 company this article. This is the only 

 work of that kind that I have ever 

 done. Shortly afterwards I left that 

 part of Arizona, and, while I have 

 quite frequently been in the arid re- 

 gions of the west since then, I have 

 never had the time to construct such 

 a fountain nor to devote to the other 

 work in connection with it. At one 

 time after I returned east, I tried 

 this plan, but did not have much suc- 

 cess, for the birds can secure water 

 almost any place here. 



Punctured Cow-birds Eggs. 



"I have yet to see a punctured Cow- 

 bird's egg," writes the late Major 

 Charles Bendire, in his Life Histories 

 of North American Birds, remarking 

 on punctured eggs in nests containing 

 eggs of this parisite. 



During the many years I have stu- 

 died the birds I have found but one 

 or two punctured Cow-birds eggs and 

 the circumstances of one of the dis- 

 coveries I herewith record. 



On May 22, 1901, at Frankford, 

 Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, I 

 found a two-thirds built nest of the 

 Indigo Bunting situated about three 

 feet up in a clump of blackberry 



bushes, along a path in the edge of 

 the woods and well hidden by the fo- 

 liage. On the morning of May 28th, 

 this nest contained two eggs of Pas- 

 serina, but on looking in the nest at 

 dusk I was surprised to see but one 

 egg, which I collected and concluded 

 that somebody had taken the other. 

 The egg was fresh. 



Three days later, May 31st, I again 

 visited the nest. It then held a Cow- 

 bird's egg, which had a hole as big as 

 a pea in the side, and underneath the 

 nest on the ground below, were frag- 

 ments of an Indigo-Bunting's egg. The 

 Lazybird's egg was perfectly fresh 

 with the contents intact, the puncture 

 being uppermost, which indicated 

 that it had been freshly broken as no 

 ants had yet commenced eating it. 



Did the Cowbird lay her egg in 

 the empty nest? Or did the Indigo 

 bird lay another egg after I had re- 

 moved the one from her nest? It is 

 a rare occurrence, in my experience, 

 for this bird to lay in her nest after 

 it had been despoiled of part of her 

 set, and just as rare is it for the Lazy- 

 bird to lay in a deserted nest, but was 

 the nest deserted? Perhaps the frag- 

 ments of the Indigo bird's egg was the 

 remains of a third egg subsequently 

 laid by Mrs. Passerina, which the 

 Cowbird ejected when she deposited 

 her unwelcome egg. It certainly 

 would be interesting to know. The 

 nest was deserted on May 31, for a 

 certainty as no Indigo bird's were ob- 

 served about it. 



This is not the first and only in- 

 stance to come under my observation 

 of finding punctured Cowbird's eggs in 

 nests, but it is the only occurrence I 

 have ever seen of Molothrus laying in 

 a seemingly deserted nest, for I be- 

 lieve the broken Indigo bird's egg was 

 one of the eggs the nest held when 

 examined on May 28th, which had in 



