20 6 
Merrill’s Oological Notes f rom Montana. 
was near the top of a ridge connecting two peaks, at an elevation of 8,000 
feet. The nest was under a shelving stone, one of many exposed by a 
land slide, and was in a little hollow dug out by the parents. The nest 
was rather large, but well and compactly built, composed externally of 
coarse dry grasses, with an inner lining of fine yellow straws and hairs of 
the mountain sheep. The eggs, five in number, were far advanced in 
incubation and one was broken in blowing. They measure .81X.60; 
.80X.59; .84X.60; . 83 X. 60. The ground color of three of these eggs is a 
dull yellowish-white, marked with spots and blotches of light reddish- 
brown and with a few blotches of lavender. The spots are scattered over 
the entire surface of the eggs, but are largest and most numerous at the 
larger end. The ground color of the fourth egg, the largest one, is a 
rather greenish-white. 
Pipilo friafcUiatus arcticug ( Swains .) Coues . — Though a common 
species in many places, the eggs of the Northern Towhee are rare in 
collections. In all parts 0/ Montana I have found it abundant wherever a 
stream with bordering underbrush afforded the needed shelter. There is 
great diversity in the time of laying, or rather in the contents of nests 
found on about the same dates from the middle of May until late in July, 
which I attribute more to the great number of nests that must be destroyed 
by snakes, birds, and small mammals, and to the attempts of the parents 
to raise another brood, than to any other cause. 
The nests are placed on the ground under some bush, a favorite place 
being in one of the many small isolated growths of cherry brush that 
are so often seen near streams flowing down many of the mountains in 
this Territory; lower, on the plains, any growth of bushes or shrubbery 
appear to answer as well. The rim of the nest is flush with the surface of 
the ground, the birds scratching a hollow large enough to contain the 
nest. These are well and strongly built; externally are placed dead leaves 
and broad strips of bark ; then a wall of finer strips of bark andblades of 
dry grass, lined usually with yellow straws. The internal diameter is 
about 2^X25. The complement of eggs is four or five, averaging .94X.69 
in size. Five sets now before me are of two very distinct types. In two 
of the sets the ground color is white, slightly tinged with greenish and 
covered with dots and small spots of reddish-brown and lavender, most 
numerous at the larger end, where a more or less distinct wreath is 
formed. The other sets have the ground color scarcely distinguishable 
on account of the very numerous markings which cover the entire surface 
of the eggs and which do not tend to aggregate at the larger end ; the 
appearance is that of a general suffusion of reddish and lilac brown. 
Sphyrapicus varius nuchalis, Baird . — The Red-naped Woodpecker 
seems to be one of the rarest of its family in Montana, and I have met with 
it on two occasions only, once near Fort Shaw and once in the Big Horn 
Mountains. 
On the 12th of June a nest was found near the mouth of the canon of 
the Little Big Horn River, a short distance below the point where the pine 
trees give place to cottonwoods. The nest-cavity was in a dead young 
