ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 
87 
were deserted : but I have known the Hooded Oriole to sit on an 
egg of M. cenetis, which was on the point of hatching when found ; 
how its own disappeared I cannot say. Once two eggs of ceneiis 
were found in a nest of the small Orchard Oriole (var. affi^nis). Twice 
I have seen a broken egg of ceneus under nests of Bullock’s Oriole 
on which the owner w^as sitting. 
Early in June a nest of the Hooded Oriole was found with four 
eggs and one of M. ceneus^ all of which I removed, leaving the nest. 
Happening to pass by it a few days later, I looked in, and to my 
surprise found two eggs of ceneus, which were taken ; these were so 
unlike that they were probably laid by different birds. Still an- 
other egg, and the last, was laid in the same nest within ten days. 
But the most remarkable instance was a nest of the small Orchard 
Oriole, found June 20, containing three eggs of census, while just be- 
neath it was a whole egg of this parasite, also a broken one of this 
and of the Dwarf Cowbird (var. ohscurus). Two of the eggs in the 
nest were rotten; the third, strange to say, contained a living 
embryo. As the nest was certainly deserted, I can only account for 
this by supposing that the two rotten ones were laid about the first 
week of June, when there was considerable rain, and that the other 
was deposited soon after, since which time the weather had been 
clear and very hot. On one occasion I found a female ceneus hang- 
ing with a stout thread around its neck to a nest of the Bullock’s 
Oriole. The nest contained one young one of this Cowbird, and 
it is probable that its parent, after depositing the egg, was entangled 
in the thread on hurriedly leaving the nest, and there died ; it had 
apparently been dead about two weeks. This case supports the 
view that the eggs or young of the owner are thrown out by the 
young parasite, and not removed by its parent, though I could find 
no trace of them beneath the nest. 
Twentj'-two eggs of M. ceneus average .90 X *70, the extremes 
being .95 X -75 and .82 X .65. The color is a greenish-white, un- 
spotted, soon fading to a dull opaque white. There is more than the 
usual variation in shape. Some are almost perfectly elliptical, others 
are nearly round ; some are quite pointed at the smaller end, while 
others still are there abruptly truncate. 
The young, soon after leaving the nest, have the plumage uniform 
dull black ; cheeks and sides of head bare ; iris brown. 
Fort Brown, Texas. 
