THE O. & O. SEMI-ANNUAL. 23 
July 14th my second nest was found. It was placed on a tussock 
of grass in the middle of a small brook and the three incubated eggs 
it contained being submerged, had been deserted. The nest was 
made principally of grasses and mud. The eggs, of a sort of grayish 
ground, were so spotted and blotched with reddish-brown as to pre- 
sent a general reddish appearance ; but in the two sets there is an in- 
finite variation in markings. This ends my brief notes on the two 
species ; but I hope sometime to be able to describe some other mem- 
bers of these two great families. 
THE ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK. | 
Habia Ludoviciana. 
BY AUSTIN CASWELL, ANN ARBOR, MICH. 
This rose-bud of North American birds, as Davie calls - him, 
arrives in this section about the second week in May, and about the 
last of that month and the first of June their eggs may be sought for, 
chiefly along a river or any good sized stream, although I have often 
found them on the edge of a woods, in a swamp, or sometimes even 
in a small thicket. The nest is almost invariably placed in a bush be- 
tween five and fifteen feet from the ground, although I have several 
times found them from twenty-five to thirty-five high in a maple tree 
on a public street. 
This bird is extremely abundant in this locality. The alder, any 
thorny bush, and sometimes the sumac bushes are generally their 
nesting sites, and here a shallow structure composed of fine twigs and 
lined with grasses is made a receptacle for their four eggs, greatly 
resembling those of the Mockingbird and Scarlet Tanager. 
The eggs differ considerably in size and markings. The average 
measurement I find to be .g7 inches long by .72 inches broad. Often 
the ground color, which varies from a pale greenish-blue to a greenish- 
white, is concealed by blotches and “streaks of reddish-brown over 
the Jarger end of the egg, and sometimes forming a circle around the 
largest part. The number of eggs is generally four, although three 
and sometimes five may often be found. I have several times found 
