Mar., 1917 GEOGRAPHICAL VARIATION IN SPHYRAPICUS THYROIDEUS 65 



Placer County: Summit, 1. Nevada County: Independence Lake, 8. Siskiyou 

 County: Mount Shasta, 1; Siskiyou Mountains, 1. Modoc County: Warner 

 Mountains, 10. 



Oregon. Fort Klamath, 3 (winter). 



British Columbia, Midway, 3. 



Sphyrapicus thyroideus nataliae 



Colorado. Gold Hill, 2. Colorado Springs, 1. Pagosa, 2. Mill City, 1. 

 Cebolla, 1. Elk Creek, 1. "Colorado", 4. 



New Mexico. Santa Fe, 1. Ancho, 2 (winter). Willis, 1 (winter). 



Arizona. Fort Whipple, 1 (winter). Huachuca Mountains, 8 (winter). 



Mexico. Bolanos, Jalisco, 1 (winter). 



Berkeley, California, February 7, 1917. 



AN ABNORMAL EGG OF FULICA AMERICANA 



By ALEXANDER WETMORE 

 WITH ONE PHOTO 



ABNORMAL birds' eggs are of more or less common occurrence and have 

 been of interest to the collector because of their oddity, but seldom has 

 there been anything known concerning them that might explain their pe- 

 culiarities. 



On May 29, 1916, while passing through an area known as the Old River 

 Channel, in the delta of Bear River, Utah, a commotion in the aquatic growth at 

 one side attracted attention. Going over, I found an adult Coot caught under 

 water and nearly drowned in long strands of the potato moss (Potamogeton pec- 

 tinatus). On taking it up I found that it had only one foot, and this explained 

 its inability to escape. The bird soon recovered and was tied and placed under 

 some rushes in the bow of the boat along with other captives. This happened 

 about nine o'clock in the morning. At noon the bird was given opportunity to 

 drink, and about four in the afternoon it was placed in a pen where it had access 

 to the river. The following morning I found to my surprise that the bird had 

 laid an egg that was strikingly abnormal in color. Though I have examined 

 many hundreds of Coots ' eggs, I have never seen any at all resembling it. 



The ground color of this egg is between pale smoke gray and light mineral 

 gray 1 , with the larger end washed with avellaneous. Small spots of bone brown 

 that stand out rather prominently, larger and more abundant about the large 

 end, are scattered over the surface. About the larger end are many blurred con- 

 fused spots of purplish gray. These markings are found over the rest of the sur- 

 face and vary in places to light purplish gray. The texture of the shell under a 

 hand lens is seen to be similar to that of other Coots' eggs. 



This egg is abnormal, then, in having a greenish gray ground with a concen- 

 tration of heavier markings about the larger end. It has absolutely no resem- 

 blance to ordinary Coots ' eggs, and no one who has examined it has recognized it. 

 In general it resembles somewhat certain shore-birds' eggs, while it has a sug- 



L Ridgway, Color Standards and Nomenclature, 1912. 



