THE SEMI-ANNUAL. ii 



time of year does so affect the nest. -The tendency seems to be 

 to make better and warmer nests early in the season. It is only 

 the early birds that are appreciably affected. 



In the following report it will be seen that all of the birds in 

 this group lay daily. It would perhaps be wiser to say that 

 this is the normal condition of things. Bad weather may, often 

 does, cause a longer or shorter suspension in laying. I have seen 

 instances where a Robin had a nest with one or two eggs which a 

 hard storm caused her to abandon. She built another nest and 

 raised her brood. I am not prepared to sa}- that she did not drop 

 another egg, or perhaps two, during the interval, but it seems 

 highly improbable. 



Even setting birds and those with young in the nest are some- 

 times driven to the choice of abandoning their treasures, or 

 perishing with them, in long continued storms. Many instances 

 have been recorded of finding nests with addled eggs and with 

 dead young, the mother having abandoned them or perished. 



Late sets are smaller than early ones, especially of Robin and 

 Wood Thrush. This would seem to show that storms affect the 

 number of eggs laid very little, if at all, if it is true, as we have 

 said, that storms are more frequent and more severe early in the 

 season than later. 



'• Does the time of year affect the color or markings of eggs?" 

 There is no evidence at hand one way or the other. It would 

 seem that late sets would be paler because the powers of the 

 birds are becoming exhausted ; assuming that the late sets are 

 the second or third in the case of birds that make more than one 

 lirood, and that those which do not, have been robbed or their 

 first set destroyed so that they made a second. But the element 

 of age must, also, be reckoned in. Assuming that the powers of 

 the old birds are waning, and as it is, they, rather than the birds 

 of the year before, which make more than one brood, and it is 

 they which make the first brood, we might suppose that the first 

 and last eggs, or sets, would be palest, the last most. I am 

 not stating anything, let it be understood, but only asking ques- 

 tions for those who shall work the coming season to answer. 



I will but state the question, "Do eggs vary in size or shape 

 at different seasons.'" The reports furnish no evidence with 



