Concord, Mass.
1909
March 30
(No 2)
  One of my bird boxes has been occupied every
season by Bluebirds ever since it was first put up, eight
or ten years ago, in a solitary apple tree in the field across
the road. I usually clear it out every autumn but this
has been neglected for the past two years. As James was
pruning this tree today I asked him to do it. On opening
the box he said it contained "a new nest full of eggs". Before
I could stop him he had taken out literally a hand full of
them. I made him put them back and bring them down in
the nest. It looked perfectly new and fresh and contained
no less than eleven eggs, two broken by his clumsy handling.
These, with the nine whole ones, were covered with fly specks &
the contents coagulated or dried & in one end. Evidently they
had all been laid last year. An older nest (that of 1907
no doubt) under the other, held two unhatched but badly
stained & broken eggs. To add to the mystery of this discovery
a pair of Bluebirds were flying close about & scolding us all
the time we were at the tree. After we had left it, taking both
nests & all the eggs, the female alighted at the hole & looked in then flew away.
Remarkable clutch? of Bluebirds eggs