76 



THE OOLOGIST. 



Eggs of the Florida Jay. 



{A Floridana.) 



Having lately received a set of these rare 

 eggs, a description may be of interest to the 

 readers of this paper; they are a little larger 

 than those of the Blue Jay, which they re- 

 semble in color, although slightly more 

 pointed than the latter. The markings 

 also, resemble splashes rather than dots; the 

 nest is rather neatly made — for a Jay. 

 There is a sort of sub- structure of small 

 twigs, interlaced in a very complicated 

 manner; on this is placed very fine grass, 

 fashioned into a nearly flat nest about four 

 inches in diameter, and three-quarters of an 

 inch deep. The set of four was taken on 

 Indian River. Fla., (from alow bush) on 



April 26th, 1886. Wm. D. Grier, 



Boston, Mass. 



Rufus- vented or Crissal Trasher ; Ben- 



dire's Thrasher ; and Canon 



Towhee. 



During the past two years I spent at the 

 Pima Agency in Arizona, I became inter- 

 ested in the study of Oology, and so make 

 the following notes on the nesting of the 

 above birds, and hope it will be of interest 

 to the readers of the Oologist. 



RUFUS-VENVED THRASHERS, (17). 



The first eggs collected this past season, 

 were brought me by a Pima Indian boy, on 

 March 1st, a fine set of two eggs of a dark 

 green color. The nest was placed in a 

 thicket, near the Gila R., about three 

 feet from the ground, composed of twigs, 

 lined with grasses and vegetable fibers, the 

 eggs slightly incubated. After this, every 

 afternoon, in company with a party of 

 Pima boys to find the nests, we would 

 make a trip of two or three miles in the 

 vicinity of the Agency. We examined a 

 number of nests, and in most of them 

 found two or three young birds, so I found 

 I had been too late to collect any eggs of 

 the first brood. 



I commenced to find eggs of the second 

 brood about the first of April, and of the 

 third brood about June 1st. The number 

 of eggs in the set is usually three, some- 

 times two, and verj' rarely four. 



bendire's thrasher, (14 a.) 

 Of these eggs I took my first set on 

 March 3d, which was placed in a slight 

 nest of twigs, about four feet from the 

 ground, in a palo-verde tree. This bird 

 does not place its nest in the bushes, 

 like (17), but always in a palo-verde tree or 

 in the choUa cactus. I did not get many 

 of these eggs again until the last of March, 

 when I had several sets brought in. The 

 eggs differ very much in markings, some 

 being something like the eggs of the Shrike 

 and others like the Mocking Bird. 



CANON towhee. 



This bird is the most common here. 

 They begin to lay about the first of April, 

 the number of eggs being three or four. 



The nest of this bird is usually near the 

 river, in thickets .and bushes, sometimes in 

 cotton-wood trees, as high as twenty feet 

 from the ground, composed of twigs, bark, 

 grass, vegetable fibre, etc. 



Among the common birds of this section 

 are 13a, 15, 15a, 36, 28, 56, 57, 340, 460, 

 431, 436c, and 483. 



RoswELL S. Wheeler, 



Pima Agency, Arizona. 



A Bird-Dance. 



Mr. C. F. Holder, the naturalist of New 

 York Central Park, thus describes a curious 

 dance of birds : Among the birds of the 

 western hemisphere the cock of the rock 

 ranks next to the crane in the strangeness 

 of its evolutions. The bird is confined to 

 South America, and is about the size of a 

 small pigeon ; has a bright orange web in 

 the male, with a plume like arangement 

 upon the head. It is a proud bird, princi- 

 pally building its nest in rocky places not 

 frequented by man. At the commence- 

 ment of the breeding-season a party of 

 birds, numbering from ten to twenty, 

 assemble, and selecting a clear space among 

 the rocks form a ring or circle, facing in- 

 ward. Now a small bird takes its place in 

 the centre and begins to hop about, toss its 

 head, lift its wings, and go through all the 

 the strange movements possible, which ap- 

 pear to be watched with great interest by 

 the rest, When the performer is thoroughly 

 exhausted he retires to the circle, and an- 

 other bird enters the ring, and so on, until 

 all have been put through their paces 

 when the pairs probably make their selec- 

 tion. Often tlie birds are so exhausted 

 after the dances that they can liardly fly, 

 lying panting on the rocks. — From the 

 March Swiss Cross. 



