Brewer.] 348 [March 18, 



Fierasfer. Teeth on jaws small but distinct. Vomerine teeth in a 

 bunch with larger ones in the centre, as in Fierasfer. No pecto- 

 rals, no ventrals. The dorsal fin commences posteriorly to the anal. 

 The anal fin commences immediately after the short abdomen. 

 Dorsal and anal rays very delicate, 1 but distinct and wide apart, 

 extending along the thread-like tail. No membrane can be traced 

 connecting the rays, though one probably existed in life. The upper 

 angle of the operculum is produced as a minute and delioate spine. 

 The height of the head is about equal to one-half of its length, and 

 its length is contained thirty-four times in the total length of the fish. 

 The diameter of the eye is equal to about one-fourth the length of 

 the head, and is greater than the interorbital space. 



Agassiz Collection. No. 4330. Mediterranean, at Messina, Dr. E. 

 Haeckel, 1865. 



Note on the Nesting and Eggs of Lagopus leucurus. 

 By Dr. T. M. Brewer. 



I have recently received the fragments of a set of eggs of the 

 white-tailed Ptarmigan, Lagopus leucurus, and some interesting notes 

 in relation to its breeding habits, from T. Martin Trippe, Esq., the 

 well known ornithologist. Fortunately one of the eggs, though 

 broken into a dozen fragments, admitted of being put together suffi- 

 ciently to give the exact size, shape, and all the peculiarities of the 

 egg. This egg is 1.70 inches in length, bv 1.21 inches in breadth, is 

 oval in shape, one end being but very little smaller than the other. 

 The ground color is a rich creamy drab, and the surface of the egg 

 is pretty uniformly marked with small rounded dots of dark chestnut. 

 These are about equally distributed over the entire egg, and are 

 nowhere confluent. The egg procured by Mr. J. A. Allen, and de- 

 scribed in the North American Birds, is without doubt correctly 

 identified, and the estimate of its length only varies from this speci- 

 men a tenth of an inch, the breadth being the same in both. Mr. 

 Trippe writes me : " The eggs were found June 28, 1873, on a high 

 ridge a thousand feet above the timber line, near the Chicago lakes, 

 about fifteen miles from Idaho Springs. The nest was merely a slight 

 depression in the ground, lined with a few white feathers from the 

 mother's breast, which was quite bare. The eggs were eight in num- 

 ber, and the bird had evidently just begun incubating. She was so 

 tame that I sat down on the grass by her side and lifted her off the 



1 The woodcut represents the rays very much thicker than in the specimen. 



