eggs were, however, secured without accident, the nest was 
removed in situ by taking with it the supporting branch ; the male 
joined his mate in her distress and both were shot and, with 
the nest and eggs, added to the oological rarities of the American 
Museum of Natural History, where, in due time, they will form 
one of the attractive ‘Bird Groups’ of the exhibition collection. 
The four eggs measure (in millimetres) as follows : i8x 12.5, 
i8x 12," 18X 12, 17X 11. The ground color is pale bluish white 
in all, but the markings vary greatly. In one the greater part of 
the surface is marked with sharply-defined dots and specks of 
dark reddish brown, but more thickly aggregated about the lar- 
ger end. In another the spots are larger, fewer and paler, and 
more vinaceous in tint, and are mostly on one side of the egg 
near the larger end. In a third the markings, which nearly cover 
and are mostly confined to the larger end, are pale, not well 
defined, and vinaceous brown ; beside these are several conspicu- 
ous blotches of blackish brown, the largest of which is near the 
larger end of the egg. In the remaining egg the markings form a 
single narrow streak of sienna brown nearly encircling the egg 
at its thickest point ; it begins in a coarse blotch of blackish 
brown, from which proceeds a narrow line encircling the egg, 
becoming narrower and paler as it advances, and finally quite 
indistinct, it much resembling the narrow pencillings seen in the 
eggs of many Orioles. This egg in respect to markings is as 
different from the egg first described as are the eggs of the Field 
Sparrow and Chipping Sparrow. 
The nest is well-built, neat, and compact, and quite large for 
the size of the bird. It measures 57 mm. (2J inches) in inside 
diameter, 90 mm. (3J inches) in outside diameter, and 37 
mm. (ij inches) in depth (inside measurement). The base of 
the nest is formed of string, thread, a long piece of tape, and 
rootlets woven into the pine needles on which it rests, some of 
the strings and the tape being looped about and bound to the 
clusters of needles. On this rests a cup-shaped structure of 
coarse and fine rootlets and soft vegetable fibre, lined with black 
horse-hair. 
The nest found by Dr. A. K. Fisher at Sing Sing, N. Y. 
(Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, VIII, 1883, P- 1S0), and the one found 
at Cambridge, Mass., in May, 1859, are, so far as I am aware, 
the only recorded instances of the breeding of this species south 
of the Canadian Fauna. 
Auk, 4, Oct. 1887. p. 2$ H - 2 & ■ 
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