21G 
N£STS AND EGGS OF 
the concealed primaries are white. The bill is rather long, stont and awl- 
shaped. The length is six inches, and the wing about three and three- 
quarters. 
The eggs have a white ground in blown specimens, but when fresh 
they show a beautiful roseate tinge, with a tendency to a reddish hue, 
which is apparently due to the ferruginous and purplish spots and blotches 
with which they are so closely covered. Considerable variations of size 
prevail in these markings, from fine jDoints to well-jDronounced blotches, 
and there is also noticeable a jJi’edominance of the reddish-brown colors. 
The average dimensions of several sets before us, from half a dozen local- 
ities, are .80 by .62 inches. Single sjDecimens may occasionally be found 
which, like Mr. Samuels’s Adirondack specimen, may have a length of .70 
of an inch, and a width of .57, but such are certainly abnormal produc- 
tions. While the rule in our Northern States seems to be, according to 
the concurrent testimony of numerous writers, but a single brood annually, 
yet there is reason to believe that in the warm, semi-tropical sections of 
our country, the s|>ecies may prove double-brooded. 
Whether our species could ever be domesticated or not, it is impos- 
sible to say. But there is no doubt that, under similar circumstances, the 
same confiding tameness would be shown, as the interesting descriikions 
given in English works tell us is exhibited by the European species. The 
latter, we are told, when treated with kindness, will come regularly to be 
fed. Individuals have been known to approach within a foot of their 
benefactor, and even to capture bits of food thrown to them before the 
latter could have time to reach the ground. 
