129 



THE OOLOQI8T 



FREAK SPARROW EGGS 



I have noticed other articles in our 

 paper about freak eggs so every nest 

 I came to I looked in hopes I would 

 find some freaks and I was awarded. 

 1 happened to look in an English Spar- 

 row's nest and although their eggs are 

 common I always look for freaks, 

 oddities, etc. I found in this nest three 

 eggs zo minutely dotted with black as 

 to almost obscure the ground color. 

 They were almost pure black and I 

 mounted them successfully a'nd they 

 are in my collection. They were dot- 

 ted even more thickly than a Jenny 

 Wren's egg. 



Phoebe. — In my collection this 

 spring I came across a Phoebe's nest 

 with four spotted Phoebe eggs and one 

 Cowbird egg. The Phoebe eggs were 

 dotted quite thickly all over with red- 

 dish-brown. This is the first set of 

 freak Phoebe-Cowbird I know of. 



American Crow. — I even looked in 

 all Crows' nests in the hopes of find- 

 ing freaks, also Hawks' and Owls' 

 eggs. I found a set of eggs in one 

 nest that were almost pure blue, that 

 was the ground color atid they were 

 almost unspotted; they only had a 

 couple of black spots on each egg, so 

 that brought the ground color out in 

 bold relief. I think this would be a 

 good plan for everybody to follow; 

 look in every nest and you will be re- 

 warded like I was. 



Arthur Blocher, 



Amboy, 111. 



Congratulations, Brother Bailey 



As The Oologist is our only egg pub- 

 lication, I think it only right that yoa 

 r.ublish the fact that the nest and egg.s 

 of the new Seaside Sparrow from Cape 

 Sable, Florida, Thryospiza mirabilis, 

 was discovered by the writer last 

 month. May 1921, on a trip to the Ca^je 

 Sable region, Munroe County, Florida. 

 1 he nest, with three eggs, wliich were 

 iucubu'ted, were photographed in Situ, 

 and the parent birds also secured; all 

 in the pi'esence of a reliable witness. 

 It was a man size job, and I spent the 

 best part of four days at it Two trips 

 being made by auto, 150 miles each, 

 to say nothing of the miles of walking 

 and hunting through hundreds of 

 acres of marsh grass, waist high, and 

 mcsquitoej by the millions, and rattle- 

 snakes a3 big as a man's upper arm. 

 However, it's all in the day's work of 

 a bird crank. 



The description of tlais bird was 

 given by Mr. A. H. Howell in the Auk, 

 Vol. XXXVI, pages 86 and 87, 1919, 

 who discovered it in February, 1918. 



As the writer contemplates publish- 

 ing a bulletin shortly, figuring several 

 rare Florida Birds and new records, 

 further details of this record will be 

 given then. My companion and wit- 

 ness to this record was Gaines T. Wil- 

 son, who shared the hardships of the 

 two trips, and who deserves a share of 

 the honor. — Harold H. Bailey, Miami 

 Beach, Florida, June 10th, 1921. 



CORRECTION 



H. M. Harrison, of Camden, N. J., 

 called our attention to the fact that 

 his article in The Oologist, Vol. 

 XXXIII, No. 9, entitled "Pileated 

 Woodpecker," refers to Dorchester 

 County, Maryland, and not Camden 

 County, New Jersey— R. M. Barnes. 



R. L. Moore, of Vernon, Texas, in 

 answer to R. F. Miller's questionnaire 

 reports a set of five Pileated Wood- 

 peckers in his collection taken by John 

 A. Donald, in Wise County, Texas, 

 April 14th, 1893, fresh.— R. M. B 



