THH OOLOGI8T 



231 



rive here about the middle of March 

 and have full compliment of eggs in 

 the early days of April. 



Ottoman Reinecke. 



Just Notes. 

 The Bewick's Wren is rather a com- 

 mon summer resident in the south- 

 western corner of Pennsylvania. De- 

 serted houses and out buildings situ- 

 ated on high ridges are his favorite 

 nesting sites, and he is not at all par- 

 ticular where he places them. Nests 

 have been found in old hats, trousers, 

 tin-cans, buckets, buggy-tops and on 

 top of sheep-shears. 



S. S. Dickey has made a special 

 study of this busy little wren and his 

 series of their nests and eggs is the 

 finest I have ever examined. Although 

 the Bewick's Wren will return to the 

 nest in most instances after the eggs 

 have been touched, the following is 

 very unusual: 



June 2, 1910, a small boy discovered 

 a Bewick's nest in a buggy shed. The 

 nest had contained five fresh eggs, two 

 of which the boy destroyed. I remov- 

 ed the remaining three eggs and left 

 the nest undisturbed. 



June 12, 1910, while passing the shed 

 a Bewick's Wren flew out, looking into 

 the nest I was surprised to see six 

 eggs. Two of these later proved to 

 be slightly incubated. 



Referring to my notes, I find that 

 every nest found containing abnormal 

 eggs has been deserted. Very likely 

 this is but a coincidence but it pre- 

 sented a problem to me. 



My first record is April 20, 1907, 

 when an American Robin's nest was 

 found containing two abnormally 

 large and very much elongated eggs. 

 The nest was deserted after the laying 

 of the second egg. 



May 19, 1912, a Red-winged Black- 

 bird's nest was discovered in a mea- 

 dow, the nest contained three eggs, 

 two of which were normal, the third 



was a runt which measured .73 x .55. 

 Incubation had begun in the two nor- 

 mal eggs, but when the eggs were dis- 

 covered they were cold and covered 

 with dew. 



August 19, 1914, a Louisiana Water- 

 thrush's nest imbedded in the bank of 

 a small stream was discovered. The 

 nest held five eggs, four normal speci- 

 mens and one almost as small as a 

 Ruby-throated Hummingbird's egg. 

 The egg measured .50 x .41. The four 

 normal eggs were partly devoured by 

 ants, the runt however was unharm- 

 ed. Some distance further up the 

 same stream, another Waterthrush's 

 nest was found which gave every indi- 

 cation of having held young birds. As 

 but a single pair of birds occupy one 

 small woods, this discredits the theory 

 that the parent bird had been killed. 



The question arises in my mind: Do 

 birds in most cases desert their nests 

 when any marked departure from the 

 normal appear in the eggs? I would 

 be glad to hear from others better 

 versed on the subject than myself. 



James B. Carter. 

 Waynesburg, Pa. 



Large Sets of Birds Eggs. 

 By Richard F. Miller. 



During the past seventeen years as 

 an active field ornithologist I have 

 found large sets of the following spe- 

 cies, in regions where the species 

 abounds, all of which are commonly 

 credited in the books as laying from 

 three to five eggs. 



Chipping Sparrow — Out of an exam- 

 ination of forty nests of this species 

 containing sets and young birds, I 

 have found only one set of five eggs. 

 This set was discovered on May 19, 

 1906, at Blue Grass, Philadelphia Coun- 

 ty, Philadelphia, and as incubation was 

 highly advanced, the set was not pre- 

 servable. It was partially abnormal 

 set too, being elongated and extra 

 long and another was immaculate. 



