OG 
THE NIDOLOGIST 87 
and Seaside and Sharp-tailed Finches in the 
finer grass meadows abound; an occasional 
pair of Bobolinks is seen, and here I found 
a nest of the King Rail. Over this tract I 
had tramped that day with good success 
and had almost filled my basket with nests 
of the species sougbt when I saw before me 
a bower of the standing grass twisted and 
woven together as I had frequently found 
over the nests of maritimus. Almost ex- 
claiming aloud ‘‘another Finch’s nest,’’ I 
roughly pushed open the bower with my 
staff to be surprised with the revelation of 
four Little Black Rail’s eggs. Carefully re- 
green spires were struggling through the 
dry growth of many previous seasons about 
ten inches in height. The eggs of this set 
average just about one inch in their longer 
and about 27-32ds of an inch in their shorter 
diameters, while those of the previously 
mentioned set arenoticeably smaller though 
of very nearly the same length, the smaller 
diameters being considerably less and aver- 
aging only about 24.32ds of an inch. The 
markings of the larger set are much more 
conspicuous for size, though never to be 
compared with Virginias or other Rail spe- 
cies, most of the markings in each set being 
ARCH ROCK 
(COURTESY PUBLISHER ‘‘STORY OF THE FARALLONES"’’) 
arranging the grasses, and marking the 
exact spot,—a mere speck in the vast marsh 
—I withdrew, to return a week later and 
find a full complement of nine eggs. All 
my efforts to secure or even see this bird 
where in vain although the whole day was 
devoted to that purpose. The eggs were 
always warm but not even a quiver of the 
grass would indicate wheu or whither the 
bird had departed. The nest was located 
in a patch ofstiff bristly grass known among 
haymakers as red-salt; no mower’s scythe 
had been over it in many years and the 
simply inconspicuous specks and dots. 
One of the five sets to which I have 
alluded was observed in the miscellaneous 
collection of end-blown, named and un- 
named eggs of a lad who had recently de- 
ceased, and to which my attention was 
invited by a friend. There were no notes 
of the find and probably the lad had no 
idea of the rarity or even name of the spe- 
cies he had found any more than the col- 
lector of the others alluded to, who called 
his Meadowlark’s. There are a number of 
species of birds in this section of whose 
