The Tricolor ed Redwing 



instructive series of 

 eggs, but in the re- 

 cognition of some facts 

 which must have 

 escaped attention in 

 a more restricted 

 search. Thus, ab- 

 normal or "freak" 

 eggs, whether re- 

 markable for size or 

 shape or color, were 

 found to be, almost 

 without exception, the 

 first laid of a given 

 clutch. It is known, 

 by now, that the 

 secretion of pigment 

 is not always exactly 

 correlated in time with 

 the deposition of the 

 limy coat of the egg. 

 If the activities of the 

 pigment cells outrun 

 those of shell secre- 

 tion, an accumulated 

 and excess amount of 

 color will be deposited 

 upon the first egg 

 which presents itself 

 for decoration. On 

 the other hand, the 

 first egg may find the 

 pigment cells belated, 

 and may escape without a touch of color. This, I say, was well known. 

 But it was more surprising to find that runts and giants, fusiforms, and 

 other eccentrics, are usually first attempts. The exception was the case 

 of last-laid eggs in sets abnormally large. Four eggs being the stern 

 rule of A. tricolor, sets of five or six were pretty sure to contain an egg 

 structurally weak. The lime had played out. Of the only set of seven 

 found, one egg collapsed in the nest, and another in being transferred to 

 the collecting box. 



Abnormality, I take it, may be a result of the exertions attendant 



Taken in Merced County 



Photo by the Author 



LIFE IN THE REEDY MAZES 



FEMALE TRICOLORS ABOVE, MALE BELOW 



no 



