White Eggs of the Bluebird. ,; 



BY B. W. BVBRMANN, BLOOMINGTON, INDIAKA. 



In reading the article by W. E. Treat, in the 

 April Ornithologist and Oologist, concerning 

 loMte eggs of the Bluebird, (Sialia miUs) it called 

 to mind a similar ejfperience which I had with a 

 pair of Bluebirds not long ago. 



In the spring of 1884, 1 put up a box in my 

 garden, at Camden, Ind., and it was soon appro- 

 priated by a pair of these birds. On May 5th I 

 examined the nest and found five fresh, pvre white 

 eggs. Before taking the set I put up another box 

 near by, hoping that when robbed of the first set 

 they would go to the second box and lay again. 

 Scarcely had the eggs been removed when the 

 birds began carrying nest materials into the secoc d 

 box. I was curious to know if this set would 



also be white, and watched them carefully. On 

 May 14th, the first egg of this set was deposited, 

 and the set of five completed on the 18th. These 

 too, were 2n'-re white. I left them in the nest until 

 the 20th, to sec if the set was completed, and also 

 to learn if the eggs were fertile. Five was the 

 full complement, and, on blowing I found them 

 all fertile. On May 21st the birds began rebuild- 

 ing in the box first used by them, but from which 

 I had removed most of the old nest. On my re- 

 turn home June 1st, after an absence of ten days, 

 I found the nest completed and three eggs in it. 

 Two days later there were five, all pure white, 

 as had been the other ten. I could not make up 

 my mind to take these eggs, but left them to be 

 hatched. The old bird began sitting June 3d. 

 Ten days later, while working in my garden I 

 failed to see the male about. As I was accustomed 

 to see him almost every day, I wondered what 

 could bo wrong. The next day I watched for 

 him but saw him not. Then I went to the scant- 

 ling upon which the box was fastened and struck 

 it, but no bird flew from the nest. Something 

 was undoubtedly wrong. Securing a ladder I 

 climbed to the box and there, lying in the nest, 

 was the decaying body of the female, and beneath 

 her the five eggs, all more or less crushed and 

 with embryos well developed. The true explana- | 

 tion, I believe, suggested itself at once. The vital 

 economy of the female had been too severely 

 taxed; the building of three nests inside of thirty 

 days, the loss of vital energy incident to the de- 

 velopment of fifteen eggs in a like length of time, 

 followed by the no less arduous and exhausting 

 labors of incubation, all these were more than the 

 frail organism could accomplish and she died a 

 martyr to her maternal instinct. _ ,tO iia 



0. ^^r>. -s ;t . Aug . 1888. PJ.2y-/'^y 



White Eggs of the Bluebird. 



BY W. E. TREAT. 



In the sprhig of 1883, a pair of Bhiebirds took 

 up their quarters in a neighbor's bird box, and by 

 the 37lh of April the female had deposited live 

 eggs of the ordinary color. I removed three of 

 these eggs, and in an interval of two days the 

 same bird commenced laying again, I .say the 

 same bird for I am confident it was, as I had often 

 made very close examinations of her. I watched 

 the nest daily, and as I looked only at the eggs 

 as they lay in the nest, which was in the box, and 

 this darkened the eggs somewhat so that I could 

 not distinguish their true color. One day I was 

 informed by a friend that they were white, and I 

 immediately removed the eggs, seven in number, 

 including the two blue ones I had left there, and 

 I . found to my surprise that five of them were 

 pure white, and were about the same size as the I 

 blue ones. 



[Tlie common Bluebird (Sialia mtlis), is iinown occasion- I 

 ally to lay white eggs, but there has been much dispute as | 

 to whether this is a common variation in their color or nut. 

 The typical egg of this species is well known to be of a uni- 

 form light blue, and it is unusual to find eggs of varying \ 

 shades of color in one nest. When white eggs are found I 

 they are all equally wanting in color in the set, and some- ' 

 times all the eggs in one nest have only the faintest tinge of 

 l)Iue ; and they appear quite white until placed on some 

 pure white surface, when the faint bluish tint is manifest. 

 The absence of color is, of course, owing to want of the 

 ordinary coloring matter, or pigment, in the parent bird, 

 but is It a constltutionai defect iu the particular bird in 

 question, or is it tlie result of laying a second or third set 

 of eggs ? The above instance cited by Mr. Treat, would 

 seem to bear out the latter. No one has ever fo-jnd white 

 eggs of the Robin {Merula migrutoria), although spotted 

 ones have been sometimes found. Albino eggs are, as a 

 rule, rare ; bnt they seem to be commoner with the Blue-^ 

 bird than with any other species.— Ed.I 



0.&0.XI.Apr.l886.p. jrj. 



