318 LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTH AMERICAN BIRDS. 



majority of specimens is entirely hidden, the egg appearing to be of a uni- 

 iform rufous cinnamon of different shades, some of the darker approaching 

 vinaceous rufous. This is again overlaid with irregular blotches and spots of 

 dark chocolate, claret, brown, and burnt Umber. Most of these eggs are 

 heavily marked, a few, however, only slightly, and in these the markings are 

 usually small and more regular in outline; a few are unspotted, and although 

 the ground color is not visible it is entirely overlaid with an even colored cin- 

 namon tint. Others look clouded, as if smeared with the coloring matter, and 

 a single specimen from Cape St. Lucas, Lower California, is a uniform creamy 

 white, and spotted throughout with fine dots of reddish chocolate not much 

 larger than pin points. 



The average measurement of thirty-three specimens in the U. S. National 

 Museum collection is 60 by 47 millimetres. The largest egg (abnormally 

 large), from Comal County, Texas, measures 75.5 by 54.5, the next largest 

 63 by 48 millimetres. The smallest measures 55 by 44.5 millimetres, and 

 comes from Matamoras, Mexico. 



Of the type specimens selected to show the more common styles of mark- 

 ings, No. 21459, two eggs from the same nest (PI. 11, Figs. 1 and 2), were 

 collected in Comal County, Texas, March 7, 1876, and are from the Bendire 

 collection; No. 22588 (PI. 11, Fig. 3), a single egg taken near Corpus Christi, 

 Texas, March 4, 1882; and No. 22592 (PI. 11, Fig. 4), from a set of three 

 taken at the same place February 15, 1884, were obtained in exchange frnm 

 Capt. B. F. Goss, Pewaukee, Wisconsin. 



109. Polyborus lutosus Ridgway. 



GUADALUPE CARACARA. 



Polyborus lutosus Ridgway, Bulletin U. S. Geographical and Geological Survey of 



the Territories, No. 6, 2d ser., February 8, 1876, 459. 



(B — , C — , R 424, C — , U 363.) 



Geographical range : Guadalupe Island, Lower California. 



The Guadalupe Caracara, a much paler and browner colored species than 

 the preceding, was and possibly still is a resident of the above mentioned 

 island, which is situated some 220 miles south by southwest of San Diego, 

 California, and is described as being about 15 miles in length and 5 miles in 

 width, and has until recently been occupied as a goat raising station. 



Dr. Edward Palmer, one of our Western pioneer naturalists, was the first 

 ornithologist to visit this island in 1875. This visit resulted in important dis- 

 coveries, not less than eight new species of land birds being added to our 

 avifauna through his explorations there, and among them the one now under 

 consideration. According to his observations the "Quelelis," as these birds 

 were called by the inhabitants, were abundant on every part of the island, 

 and no bird could be a more persistent or more cruel enemy of the poultry 



