170 The Wilson Bulletin — No. 85 



duced by a blow from the beak of the young bird. A series 

 of little cracks radiated in all directions from this place. The 

 next thing noticed was the extension of a series of these 

 bulges around the egg at right angles to the long axis. At 

 11 :30 A. M. July 21 one egg had hatched and the shell had 

 been removed. The two other eggs had four of these breaks 

 extending about half way around the shell. From this time 

 until three o'clock there was no change in appearance altho 

 a number of times the female picked gently at the cracked 

 places. On these occasions I could not see that she took any- 

 thing away altho she undoubtedly broke the shell a little by 

 these actions. At 3 :00 p. m. she left the nest and was hardly 

 out of sight when the egg she had been picking began to 

 hatch. A dark line appeared around the shell and enlarged 

 in a series of tiny jerks until I could see the young bird kick- 

 ing and twisting within. The crack grew steadily wider 

 until it was fully half an inch wide on the top of the egg, 

 tho it had hardly opened at all on the side next the nest. At 

 this point the female returned and immediately commenced 

 picking at the shell membrane which still held the two pieces 

 of shell together. As it came away a bit at a time, she swal- 

 lowed it, repeating the process until the two pieces had fallen 

 apart. She then seized the smaller piece (the big end of the 

 egg and the one that contained the head of the nestling) and 

 carried it away, leaving the nestling still in the remaining 

 piece. In less than a minute she returned and seized the 

 membrane still attached to the shell. As she pulled on the 

 membrane, the nestling was lifted clear of the nest but fell 

 back without injury. On the second attempt it pulled loose 

 and tumbled the young one into the nest. The membrane 

 was quickly swallowed and the remaining shell carried away. 

 She returned immediately and picked the small bits of shell 

 from the bottom of the nest, devoured them and commenced 

 to brood. The actual process from the time the crack ap- 

 peared until the last bits of shell were taken from the nest 

 did not exceed ten minutes. 



