are numerous and are often confluent and occasionally obscured by surface marks. Size, .59 x .74. No. 3. 
Ground-color white. Surface-marks are very faint burnt-sienna, and consist of blotches, spots, and speckles 
and occasionally, irregularly short lines. The deep shell-marks are twice as plentiful as surface marks, 
they are pale lavender and are chiefly in a wreath about the base, while the surface marks are distrib- 
uted for the most part over the pointed half of the shell. Size, .54 x .71. From the above descriptions 
the reader will see that there is considerable variation in the amount and pattern of markings. 
DIFFERENTIAL POINTS: 
The eggs of the Yellow-winged Sparrow are easily recognized from the eggs of other Sparrows which 
build in a similar locality and position, by their size, ground-color, and color and arrangement of the 
markings. The eggs of the Swamp Sparrow, the Song Sparrow, the Bay-winged Bunting, and the Lark 
Finch are so entirely different from those of the species under consideration, there is but the slightest 
chance of confusion. There are eggs which resemble them closely, but the nests are entirely dissimilar 
in location, position, and construction. See Table. 
REMARKS : 
Fig. 4, Plate LX, represents three eggs of the Yellow-winged Sparrow, they show the common sizes, 
shapes, ground-color, and pattern and color of the markings. The location, position, and construction of 
the nest is so similar to some of the nests upon the ground already illustrated that a drawing of it is 
omitted. 
On page 555, Yol. 1, “North American Birds,” Mr. Brewer, writing of the eggs of this species, says: 
“Wilson and Nuttall describe the eggs as grayish-white, sprinkled with brown. Audubon says they are 
dingy-white, sprinkled with brown spots. This' is not accurate. The ground-color is a clear crystalline 
white, beautifully dashed and marbled with bold markings of an almost golden brown. These spots vary 
in size, are often quite large, and occasionally make a corona about the larger end. The eggs are of a 
rounded oval, almost spherical, shape, measuring .75 x .63 of an inch.” Page 127, “Birds of Eastern North 
America,” Mr. C. J. Maynard says: “Eggs four or live in number, rather oval in form, ashy-white in color, 
spotted and blotched with reddish-brown and lilac, more thickly on the larger end.” Mr. IT. D. Minot, 
in “Land and Game Birds of New England,” describing the eggs under consideration, writes: “ Four or 
five eggs are then laid, averaging .78 x .60 of an inch, and normally are white, with a wreath of blended 
reddish-brown and obscure lilac spots about the greater end, and a few scattered spots of the former color 
elsewhere. In some cases the markings cover the greater end, so that there is no distinct ring.” From 
the above it wall be seen that, making due allowance for errors of description, there is considerable 
variation in the eggs of this Sparrow. 
226 
