Eggs in a Set. 



In May, 1880, I took a set of six robins ' 

 eggs, and in July, 1881, a set of eight 

 with this peculiar history : Late in June 

 »v I discovered a pair of robins building in a 

 ^ small plum tree in the yard. I visited the 

 ^nest daUy when completed, and at noon of 

 ^ the day the fourth egg was laid, I took the 

 set of four. Imagine my surprise in go- 

 ring out the next morning to find the nest 

 ■ gone from the plum tree and at seeing it 

 ^ nicely settled in the crotch of a young 

 ^^maple, the next tree to the plum, with the 

 female upon the nest. This was about 9 

 a,a. m. About 5 p. m. I visited the nest and 

 found one egg, to which three more were 

 (padded in the next three consecutive days. 

 5l The sixth day I took the four, making my 



rset of eight. Queries: How did those 

 birds remove that nest intact? as they 

 ffi Q must have done, and would the female 

 have laid the eight eggs had I not taken 

 ^ ^the first four from the nest? I think she 

 would as they were laid in eight consecu- 

 ^ tive days. I have also caused a robin to 

 ^ lay eight eggs by removing one egg daily. 

 There were three eggs when I first discov- 

 ered the nest. 



Rare and Curious Birds' Nests. 



BY PKOF. THOMAS G. GENTllY. 



From time immemorial, it has been the current poi)ular 

 belief that birds of the same Bpecies never varied tlieir 

 style of architecture, but constructed the same form of 

 nest, and out of the same materials, as their remotest pro- 

 genitors did, instinct being the principle by which they 

 e guided. This opinion, though long since exploded by 

 ■ science, is slill, I am sorry to say, entertained by those who 

 should know better. An examination of nests from differ- 

 ent and widely separated localities affords evidence sulli- 

 cient to convince the most skeptical of persons of its erro- 

 neousness. The most marked differences will be noticeable 

 in the composing materials, as these will be found to vary 

 with the environment, and in a wider degree in the nests of 

 some, than in those of other, species. Even the configura- 

 tion, which is less prone to change, is often influenced by 

 the circumstances of position and latitude. 



Among the Thrashes, the Eobin J s the most addicted to 

 variation, and this is not wholly confined to the constitu- ^ 

 ents of his usually mud-plastered domicile, but is frequent- 

 ly to be observed in the arrangement thereof, and in the Oi 

 ] contour and position as well. In Southern Xew Jersey, ^ 

 where low marshy woods abound on the outskirts of towns ■ 

 I and villages, Robins buiid nests which contrast more mark- v 

 edly with what we are accustomed to sec in more northern "J- 

 localities. The great masses of a grayish-green fibrous ^ 

 lichen, which hang from tree and shrub in those sylvan ^ 

 marshes, are freely utilized by them, and its very nature to 

 : mat, when pressed together, precludes the necessity of 

 using mud. 



j In the Summer of 1877 my attention was directed to a 



nest of this species which was built upon a railroad em- 

 bankment. The ground had an inclination of forty-five 

 degrees. To one not conversant with the facts, such a po- 

 sition for a structure of the kind these birds are known to 

 make, would appear impossible. Difllcult as the task must 

 seem to be, when viewed from a human standpoint of 

 judging of the builders' capabilities, it was nevertheless ac- 

 complished, and in this wise : A semi-circular wall of mud, 

 some three inches in height, was, after much labor, erected, 

 and within the cavity thus formed was placed a coarse, 

 substantial and bulky fabric. 



