Wood Thkushes, {Hylocichla mustelina.) 

 The creek timbers all about here are full Qs, 

 of them, and the Cow-bird, {Molothrm D- 

 ater,) seems to find this nest particularly ^ ^ 

 convenient, for almost every other nest has 9 ® 

 this parasitic egg among the rightful ovpn- t« 

 er's, and in some instances two and more. 3 

 My friend, Dr. Matthews, a great lover of .t 

 Oology, now in Kansas, and myself found ^ 

 a nest in the Vermillion river timber, near n X 

 Pontiao, containing three of the Blue "g 

 Thrushes and three (each differently i5 Q 

 marked) Cow-bird's eggs. The color, con- 

 trast and the nicety with which they had 

 been placed in the nest, half to half, was 

 strikingly wonderful. •~4) ^.'^'C'l^''^- 



Notes- Eggs of Thrushes & Thrashers, i 

 H.Q.Parker. 



Wood Thrush {HijUjcidila mustelina). Deep 

 greenish bkio eggs, easily distinguished from 

 tlie Robin's, which are larger. Four eggs gen- 

 erally constitute a set, though the writer has 

 taken one set of Ave in wliich one was a runt. 

 Very often also, only thi'fo arc laid. This bird 

 is sometimes made the I'o^U'r p.uciii of the Cow- 

 bird's young, and two iustnuccs aic remembered 

 whei'e the foreign egg was taken with the 

 Thrushes eggs in a nest. In one case one egg 

 of the Cowbird and ouo of the Thrush was 

 found, and in the other three eggs of the Cow- 

 bird and two of the Thrush. 



Eggs of this species show comparatively lit- 

 tle variation, but some examples are rounded 

 and some of the elongated form ; and the dif- 

 fering degrees of intensity of blue, are percepti- 

 ble to a close observer. An exti-a large sized 

 specnnen measures !.llx.83; but this is quite 

 phenomenal however, as the usual size is about 

 l.OOx.75. 



0,&0. XII. May. 1887 p. 69 



