Number of Eggs in a Set. 



BY C. S. BRIMLEY, RALEIGII, N. C. 



Seeing this subject discussed in tile August 

 O. ANB O. by Mr. Hoxie, I give some experi- 

 ences of my own on tlie subject, as being pos- 

 sibly of some interest. 



First, as to the number of eggs varying with 

 the habitat, 1 find that several species iu this 

 locality lay less than the usual number, as fol- 

 lows : 



Wood Thrush (Hylocichla mustelin a), usual 

 ^ number four; at least one-third of the incu- 



bated sets in this locality consist of three only, 

 land in 1886 I found a complete set of only two 

 I (incubated) , but in this case the eggs were mueli 

 (larger than usual. Abundant. 



Oc^G. gjl. (9<u. l^isV. Jo. fCC . 



NeatinKi>at.ud,lfiB8.Kalelgh.N.C. , 

 O.S.Brimley. 



J::r- ^^^-'^^--l-etof^feetindog-j' 

 O.&O. XIV. No-V. 1889 p. 165 



jr, c " 



So, Bgffs In Set- CS.Brinaey 



' 1 Wood Tin 



ush. Standard set, four. Varia- 



tion, four to 



five. Per cent of variation about 



1 .30. 









^ No. Eas 

 ft 



xe. ? 



fa in Set. O.S.Brisaiey 



\ Wood TIivu 



sli. standard set, four; variation, 



1 three to four 



not four to Bve, as I said in my 



! previous artic 



le. 



0,&0 



XVI. JaBiiSW, p. 9 



flag's at Raleig-h, N.G. 1890 



May Wo.o<l Tlirnsli: set of four; n 

 feet in hickory. 



18. Turdufi mustelinus. I found a nest of 

 this Thrush in Missouri containing one egg of : 

 tlie Cowbird and three of the Thrush within ■ 

 a few feet of a Vireo's nest which also con- 1 

 tained a Cowbird' s egg. Otho C. Polim/. 

 Quincy, Illinois. 



O.&O. XlV.Sept. 1889 p 134 



The Wood Thrush. 



From the time that our great statesman 

 and ex-president, Thomas Jefferson, who 

 " followed this bird for miles without ever 

 but once getting a good view of it," and wlio, 

 "for twenty years, interested the young 

 sportsmen of his neighborhood to shoot him 

 one," down to the present date of advanced 

 ornithology and oology, much has been said 

 and written in regard to this favorite bird. 



His beautiful song and habits and their 

 nests and eggs have been so often described, 

 that it seems almost impossible to say any- 

 thing further in regard to this bird which 

 would be interesting, especially to the older 

 students of ornithology and oology; and 

 yet I feel it my duty to make one correction 

 in regard to the material of which its nest: 

 is composed, for the benefit of the younger 

 students and more especially for some of the 

 older ones, who study more from books than 

 from Nature. 



Davie, in his second edition of " Nests 

 and Eggs of North American Birds," says 

 that its nest is "composed of leaves and 

 grasses, with a layer of mud ; " and in his third 

 edition, the same author says : " On the out- 

 side, it is composed of leaves, grasses, and 



ORNITHi 



stems of weeds, which are gathered when wet 

 and become solid and firm, and between 

 these are tracings of mud." 



Now, in all the years of my careful obser- 

 vations, I have never been able to find a sin- 

 gle nest of the Wood Thrush which contained 

 any mud except where small patches of it 

 had adhered to the decayed vegetation used 

 in its construction, seemingly more by acci- 

 dent than intention. My correcdon there- 

 fore is this, that the solid part of the Wood 

 Thrush's nest, usually called mud, is com- 

 posed of very old decayed vegetation and old 

 rotten wood pulp. I do not make these 

 statements to in any way injure Mr. Davie's 

 valuable -works, for I prize them highly, and I 

 think it would be proper here to state that 

 various other publications have made the 

 same mistalie ; and if any ornithologist who 

 seems to differ with me on this subject will 

 carefully examine the nest of the Wood 

 Thrush, I feel sure that he will agree with me 

 that no mud is intentionally used in its con- 

 struction. James B. Purdy. 



Plymouth, Michigan. 



0.& O.V«3Ll8,_.ABg.l393 p. 119 



Detroit, MicJi. IBQlNotee. 

 u fi.S. Swales. 



May 31. Wood Thrush; set of four fresh 

 ' eggs. This Thrush is a most exquisite song- 

 ster, particularly in rainy weather, when his 

 clear, ringing notes seem to be far sweeter. 



O. A O. Vol. 18. July. 1893 p. 100 



A little furtlier along another nest greeted 

 our eyes. This time it was that of the Wood 

 ) Thrush {Turdu» m.ustelinun) and contained four i 

 fresli eggs. It was built in the crotch of a ' 

 small sapling about twelve feet from the 

 ground. The spectacle of myself, a firm 

 grasp on the sapling with one hand, tlie nest 

 in the other, and all tlie while trying to 

 place it in my wife's outstretched hands, 

 would, no doubt, have proved quite laugliable 

 to an onlooker; however, there was no one to 

 look, and to us it was^alTvery sober earnest. 

 On again reacliiug the groiuid I followed tlie 

 old bird, who kept constantly flitting from one j 

 tree or busli to another, to make sure of my if 

 identification, i ' 



O.&O. XIV. Nov. 1889 p.\e(^ 



