THE ORNITHOLOGISTS’ AND OOLOGISTs’ SEMI-ANNUAL. 19 
different seasons, as at times it is difficult to find a full set of three 
eggs ; at others three eggs is the rule and four the exception. The 
eggs are white, sometimes thickly marked with brown; in others the 
markings are of a lavender tint ; again eggs are found where the brown 
or lavender markings almost conceal the ground color, and others 
where the markings are few, of a reddish-brown color, resembling 
some eggs of the Meadow Lark. Again some eggs are of a greenish 
tint, the markings of a slate color and the egg bearing a close resem- 
blance to that of the Nighthawk. It is impossible to describe all the 
variations. Some of thé eggs cannot be differentiated from those of 
the Texan Cardinal. Average, 1.05x.79 inches. 
AMONG THE RAPTORES. 
BY DR. W. S. STRODE, BERNADOTTE, ILL. 
On the afternoon of March 22nd, 1887, I had a collecting experi- 
ence, the pleasure of which will not soon fade from my memory. 
Having a professional call to make to see a family residing three miles 
west of the village of Bernadotte, I thought it a good time while in 
this section of the country, to take a look for the eggs of the Rap- 
tores, there being here a large tract of woodland, jutting out into the 
surrounding prairies, that had escaped the woodman’s axe. 
Strapping on my climbers, and putting a ball of stout string in my 
pocket, I mounted my horse and started, making my visit. I then 
turned my attention to looking for nests. 
Away across the fields to the south of the highway, a quarter of a 
mile, in an eighty-acre tract of timber, I could see in the top of a tree, 
a large, bulky nest of some kind. Leveling a good opera-glass at 
the structure, it became very plain to me as the nest of a Hawk, and 
I even fancied I could see the head and tail of the bird above the 
edge of the nest. 
Going through a gate into the field that intervened, I rapidly rode 
to within a short distance of the tree in which the nest was situated. 
Tying my horse to a fence, I went over, and throwing a club into 
the tree, the Hawk left the nest ; but kept sailing around in near prox- 
imity to it. The bird, I soon discovered, was not a Red-tail, our most 
