72 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [BuU. 



cided he was mistaken in thinking the size of the eggs abnormal, 

 and collected them, as they were not far from a well traveled 

 road. The eggs were well advanced in incubation and one of 

 them slightly nest-cracked. They measure, respectively, 1.52 

 inches by 1.12, and 1.51 by 1.12. They are evidently either eggs 

 of the Passenger Pigeon, or eggs' of the Domestic Dove which had 

 been substituted by some one for eggs of the Mourning Dove. 

 Dr. Charles W. Richmond, who kindly compared these eggs with 

 a series of eggs of the Passenger Pigeon in the U. S. National 

 Museum, informed L. B. B. that they had more gloss than any 

 eggs of the latter in the collection, but that, as most of these 

 eggs had been taken from the oviducts of birds found in market, 

 this difference was not conclusive. Although there is of course 

 no possibility of certain identification the incident seems worth 

 recording. 



An egg in the cabinet of L. B. B. was collected by Mr. A. A. 

 Kellogg of New Haven, in New Hartford before 1870. It meas- 

 ures 1.43 by 1.03 inches. 



In the collection of J. H. S. are two eggs taken by W. W. C. 

 in Portland. One was found May 29, 1873, the male pigeon 

 being on the nest and afterwards shot and* mounted ; the other 

 June 6, 1875. J. H. S. saw the latter nest, which was on a small 

 tree and not over ten feet from the ground. 



Mr. G. L. Hamlin writes that they formerly bred commonly 

 near Neversink Pond. Near Bethel he knew of their last nesting 

 in 1874, the nest being in a swamp maple near the edge of a small 

 tract of woodland ; but the young birds were taken from the nest 

 by a Cooper's Hawk, and that was seen by his father. In Septem- 

 ber, 1880, he saw the last large flock, some 500 birds. In August 

 and September, 1892, a flock of seven frequented a field of buck- 

 wheat near his home in Bethel for about a month, and one bird 

 he shot was in full moult and therefore not preserved. A single 

 bird was seen by him in 1893, and no more until September, 1902, 

 when for some time a flock of twenty-seven frequented a field 

 of buckwheat and new mown rye. Of this flock all he was able 

 to secure were the feathers of wings and tail of one that had been 

 killed by a hawk. 



