114 ORNITHi 
Nesting of the Whip-poor-will. 
Inch in breadth. The general color is clear 
white, irregularly blotched, first by mottlings 
of pale purple, then by spots of a reddish-brown 
hue. They are of an equal length and both 
ends are nearly of the same size. One has 
much darker spots than the other, and these 
are chiefly in an irregular circle near the centre 
of the egg. The dark spots on the lighter one 
are more towards the larger end, while what 
may be termed the smaller end is larger than in 
the other specimen. They were placed close 
together and lay lengthwise on their leafy bed. 
They were perfectly fresh and one of them 
may have been deposited that morning. 
After this find we proceeded still westward, 
and saw several nearly completed nests of Red- 
Starts ( Setophaga ruticilla ), and took another 
set of four eggs of the Wood Thrushes, sets of 
four and three of Hermit Thrush, and three of 
Wilson’s Thrush (Hylocichla fuscescens) and 
found a partly formed nest of the Golden- 
crowned Thrush ( Siurus aurocapillus) , from 
which I afterwards took a fine set of four eggs. 
Returning homeward we again flushed the 
Whir-poor-will from her old nesting place. 
1 might here note that 1 heard for the first 
time this season the notes of this species on 
the evening of the oth of May and as the weath- 
er became warmer their notes were heard ap- 
parently answering each other from various 
tracts of woodland in this vicinity, which seem- 
ed to indicate that they are becoming more 
common. 
O.&O. XII. Jul y 1867 q, //■?-// V - 
Bird Notes From the Pacific Coast. 
v BY H. R. TAYLOR, SAN JOSE, GAL. 
A cousin of mine at Santa Clafa, Cal., saw a 
flock of '-geese some time ago, flying in a south- 
erly direction and, accompanied by a solitary 
duck of some small specie's, which was flying 
in a position third from the first goose of the 
line, and apparently /flapping its wings with 
great rapidity in order to keep up with the 
flock. He was greatly surprised at the odd 
sight, having never before observed ducks fly- 
ing in company with geeseV 
One day, some weeks after, 'while in the same 
locality, he noticed a single duck flying north 
with a flock of geese. The duck,, occupied the 
same relative position in line as file one seen 
before, and was he thinks the same bird. 
Qfie of my friends saw a small sparrow close- 
ly pursued by a Sparrow Hawk and had about 
gived it up as lost when the sparrow darted 
BY G. S. H., BETHEL, CONN. 
On the morning of June 23rd, 1886, as I was 
walking through the woods I flushed a Whip- 
poor-will, ( Caprimulgus vociferus ) from off the 
ground a short distance in front of me, and on 
going to the spot where she arose I saw a sin- 
gle egg lying in its apology for a nest at the 
base of a white oak tree. The woods had all 
been cut off the previous winter from around 
the tree, except on the north side about twenty 
feet from it, where there was a clump of small 
saplings and hushes. I left the egg thinking 
there would be one more by another day, it 
being situated in a place where I was in the 
habit of passing from two to three times a day. 
I waited two days, visiting it four times in the 
interval, each time the owner flying directly off 
from the egg when I was about twenty-five 
feet from it and alighting in the bushes on the 
north side. I secured the egg on the 25th of 
June, and did not go near the place again until 
the 28th, when I was very much surprised by 
seeing another egg in the same place but did 
not see the parent bird. I also visited this 
twice a day for the next three days, when as I 
had seen nothing of the owner I concluded on 
j the first day of July to secure it but was dis- 
I appointed to find the egg gone. The same pair 
' presumably had nested in the immediate vicin- 
ity for several Sept. 1887 p.l55 
j While engaged in this occupa- 
tion I was startled by a large brownish look- 
ing bird which arose from the ground almost 
from under my feet. A glance and I recog- 
nized the Whip-poor-will (Antrostomus voci- 
ferus) and there, too, right before me, on the 
bare ground at the edge of a bi ush heap lay 
the two eggs. There was no attempt what- 
ever at a nest, the eggs being laid simply upon 
the dead leaves which covered the ground. 
Tt was a beautiful contrast, too, which was 
brought out by the dark brown background 
of the leaves, and the grayish, marbled sur- 
face of the two eggs. 
O.&O. XIV. Nov. 1089 p. 106 
