■as 
" Ruby Throated Hu mming-b ird, (Irochilus 
eolubris). May 30th, this afternoon, as a friend 
and I were tramping through the woods we saw 
a hummer. It soon alighted on a limb of a spruce 
nnrl hptrsin tn worlr at its npst. wllicll WaS Oil 
tl| Where the Nest Complement is Two 
tl ! Eggs, an Interval of More than 
a | a Day Elapses Between 
ej 
tl 
their being Laid. 
BY It. B. MCLAUGHLIN, STATESVILLE, N. C. 
, In the August number of the O. and O. Mr. 
jd. Parker Norris, commenting editorially, on 
] an article by Mr. Iloxie, says : “ More mistakes 
1 have been made by writers in the statement of 
j the number of eggs laid by certain species than 
j in any other branch.” This recalls a statement 
made in an article on the Hummingbird, by 
Charles Wilkins Webber, the author of “ Wild 
Scenes and Song-birds,” ‘-The Hunter Natural- 
ist,” and I learn from a brief sketch, of “Some 
° valuable contributions to Natural History.’ 
i 
f 
did not hear he 
Bailey , Elk Bit 
Having described his finding a hummer's nest, 
Webber, in the article in question, continues : — 
“Having climbed up first, so as to show her, 
my sister followed — the girls used to climb like 
squirrels, in Kentucky, in my young days! — 
and many were the expressions of childish de- 
light as she peeped over and saw these three 
little eggs,” etc. 
Is natural history benefited by such valuable 
contributions as this? I thought it was settled 
that the hummers lay but two eggs. I have ex- 
amined hundreds, and I say hundreds because I 
have examined that many of the nests of the 
lvuby-throated ( A. coluhvls) and have never 
known more than two eggs in a set to occur. 
I have also found a dozen or more nests con- 
taining one egg each, in various stages of incu- 
bation, but on several occasions found the 
broken shell of the missing egg on the ground 
beneath and believe the other wanting ones had 
a history also. 
I am quite sure that the usual number is two 
and do not believe the bird ever lays more, and 
which are b 
webs. Thi 
built by botl 
days to coni] 
her compler 
gins at ono 
the male st 
for his mate. At me end ot 5 or 9 days 
the young are hatched, and then for the 
next two weeks the parent birds are kept 
busy from daylight until dark finding food 
for these hungry mites. At the end of this 
time they are large enough to leave the nest, 
and in a few days more are left to shift for 
themselves. About the first of September 
they are off for the south, the old ones a few 
days in advance of the young. 
R. S. Ingersoll. 
\ 
Dec. 1887.J AND OC 
my reason for so believing brings me to what I 
wish to say concerning the birds that invariably 
lay two eggs in this section, which is this : 
one day elapses between the days on which the first 
and second eggs are laid — that is if the bird lay 
its first egg on Monday, it will miss Tuesday 
and lay the second on Wednesday. I first ob- 
served this some years ago by watching nests 
of the domestic Pigeon and have since devoted 
much time to the class of birds which lay two 
eggs. I have examined many nests of Ruby- 
throated Hummingbird, Whippoorwill, Night- 
hawk, Turkey Buzzard, Black Vulture and 
Mourning Dove, and all were found to conform 
to the above rule. I have never seen this fact 
mentioned by any writer, nor have I met with 
a collector who had noticed it, and Mr. Norris 
writes me that he is confident it has never been 
mentioned in any work on ornithology and 
oology. To me it seems almost incredible that 
so curious a thing should have been entirely 
overlooked by all naturalists, and it was with 
some hesitation that I decided to mention the 
fact so far in advance of the coming season 
when the proper investigations may be made; ; 
however, I have the satisfaction of knowing 
that when the matter is tested my statements 
will be verified. 
It is well that the oiilogist should be informed 
of the elapsing of this interval as he may allow 
sets to be completed which he would otherwise 
take while incomplete. 
I earnestly desire the cooperation of collec- 
tors everywhere, specially those who have op- 
portunities to observe the Western Humming- 
birds, Ground Dove, Chuck-will’s Widow and 
others whose normal number is two, and if they 
conform to the same rule — and by analogy it 
would seem they do — the natural deduction 
will be that where this uniform interval occurs 
between the depositing of the first and second 
eggs, two complete the set and when a third 
egg appears it is laid by another bird. 
Although this should serve only as a means 
of ascertaining what species lay but two eggs, 
it may go just so far in determining the vexed 
question of how many eggs constitute a set. 
Therefore, it is hoped that collectors will give 
this class of birds the attention they deserve, 
and let their fellow collectors have the benefit 
of their observations. To the thoughtless one 
who may otherwise think me in error, I will 
say that the nest may be completed and one 
egg laid when found and should he return on 
the following day and find the set complete, 
this only proves the first egg had been depos- 
ited one day prior to the finding. 
O.&O. XII. Deo. 1887 p. //£-//£ 
O.ftO.VoI.18, May. 1893 p 79 
