254 THe WILsoNn BULLETIN—NOs. 76-77. 
other pair acting as if they had a nest in the vicinity and gave 
the same note as far as | could tell as the ones found around 
Vashington. Palmer shot the male and it was probably the 
mate of the one I shot on the 7th, already remated (Riley ms.). 
B. p. antillarwm is engaged is incubation as early as March 25, 
in Grenada, W. I. (Ober). 
NuMBER OF EGGs IN Set.—The pioneer writers give the 
maximum number in a set as 5, and Cory has recently reassert- 
ed it. Zadock Thompson gives an instance of a female shot 
while building her nest in April, 1840, near Burlington, Vt. 
Within her were found 5 eggs in different stages of enlarge- 
ment, one appeared fully formed with shell quite hard and ina 
condition to be deposited in a nest. Bendire gave an apparently 
authentic instance of a set of 5 eggs collected at Quincy, Ill. 
and I have made an earnest effort to locate this unique set for 
the purpose of verification. The collector, T. C. Poling, mforms 
me that he has given no special attention to ornithology for 
over 15 years; his collection and-records were disposed of to 
Adolph Sutro of San Francisco, Calif., many years ago. J. 
Eugene Law writes me that Adolph Sutro was one of the 
city millionaire pioneers and the owner of a fine park in the 
vicinity of the Cliff House, which was destroyed. Sutro mu- 
seum stood in the near vicinity. The set is probably now non- 
existant, and the few other claims have easily resolved into 
sets of 5 eggs of B. lineatus. J. D. Currie informs me that in 
Minnesota, out of about 40 sets found, 10 had 2 eggs each, 20 
had 3 eggs each, 4 had 4+ eggs each, and he considers four 
eggs in a set extraordinarily rare. Preston found a majority 
of sets taken in 1896 contained 3 eggs, while those of 1887 
had, with few exceptions, but 2 eggs; however, in the total 
for the seasons, more sets of 3 than 2 eggs were taken. 
The 406 sets, of which I have record, are divided as follows: 
Canadian Zone........... lset of 1, 26 sets of 2, 23 sets of 8, 9 sets of 4 
Transition Zone......... 7 sets of 1, G5 sets of 2, 98 sets of 3, 4 sets of 4 
Upper Austral Zone..... 6 sets of 1, 80 sets of 2, 66 sets of 3, 5 sets of 4 
Lower Austral Zone..... 1lset of 1,12setsof2, 3 sets of 3, 0 sets of 4 
OMEN! Seo enone oor s0 15 188 190 18 
