of egg is unmarked except by speckles and deep shell-blotches. Speckles are also scattered over the 

 smaller end, between and upon the blotches and spots. No. 2. At larger end are an abundance of 

 blotches, occasionally confluent, about the size of the letter o of this type. The equator of egg is com- 

 paratively free from blotches, but the smaller half is blotched quite abundantly. Between the blotches 

 are spots and speckles, and occasionally deep shell-marks of lilac. ~No. 3. Pointed half entirely unmarked; 

 basal half thickly speckled with reddish brown; no blotches or spots anywhere. The speckles, although 

 covering the entire base, are so distributed that they form a wreath of almost solid color. The eggs vary 

 in size from .87 to 1.00 in long-diameter, and from .69 to .79 in short-diameter. A common size is about 

 .74 x .96 of an inch. 



DIFFERENTIAL POINTS : 



Of the seven Thrushes known to build in Ohio, five lay blue or greenish-blue eggs, but they can 

 generally be distinguished from each other by their size and tint. The nests of these species are more 

 readily recognized than their eggs, being easily identified by their size and material of construction. The 

 eggs of the remaining species, the Brown Thrush and the Mockingbird, are entirely different from each other 

 and from the eggs of the other Thrushes, in fact the eggs of M. polyglottus are so distinctive in their 

 ground-color and markings, that they bear little resemblance to any other Ohio eggs of the same size. 



REMARKS : 



Fig. 4, Plate LXIV, represents three eggs of the Mockingbird; one of them was taken in Ohio in 

 1880, the other two came from the South. They show the variations in size, shape, ground-color, and 

 markings usually met with. 



The Mockingbird visits this State so rarely that little is known about its habits in this climate, and 

 whether it will ever become a common summer resident is open to discussion. As a rule I suppose the 

 tendency is for the northern birds to become more southern, rather than the reverse, yet it is a fact that some 

 southern species have in recent years become common, which formerly were unknown in this latitude, or 

 were rare. It is said by some of the older ornithologists that thirty or forty years ago the Mockingbird 

 was more plentiful here that at present, this seems to indicate that the time is not far ahead when it will 

 be unknown except as a cage-bird. 



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