16 
ORNITIlOLOttlST 
[Vol. 6-No. 2 
Great Horned Owl’s Egos. —Mr. W. W. 
Coe of Portland, Conn., has again taken a 
pair of eggs from his ‘'Old Owls.” They 
were hiken this year on March 8th. This 
is the seventh or eighth successive year 
that this pair of birds have yielded tribute 
to Mr. Coe. Dr. "Win. Wood states that 
he once took live eggs at one time and 
from the same nest. It would be interest¬ 
ing to know if these eggs w’ere all laid by 
one female. 
An Egg Within an Egg.— I would like to 
know whether any of your readers have 
met with a case in the formation of eggs 
similar to the following, for as far as my 
experience goes, it is decidedly unicpie. A 
friend of mine while breakfasting on some 
duck’s eggs, opened an unusually large one 
and found within it a second egg with a 
perfect shell, similar in color and thickness 
to the outer one. He brought it to me 
and it is now in my collection. It is almost 
globular and about an inch in diameter ; 
it contained a yolk with surrounding albu¬ 
men, but I could not say as to the germ 
for it was boiled hard. . 
G. A. McCallum, Ontario. 
Recent Publications. 
‘•Illustrations of Nests and Eggs.” The 
Oologists of North America have now be¬ 
fore them three works on the Nests and 
Eggs of the birds of North Americ.T, all 
claiming their patronage. As there are 
few of our readers that will be enabled to 
examine all three, it might be well lor us 
to give a little of our experience, as well as 
our opinion, of the three works in cpies- 
tion. We have no interest in any of them, 
have purchased two of them, and seen a 
sample copy of the third. We have before 
us seven numbers of the “Illustrations of 
the Nests and Eggs of the Birds of Ohio,’’ 
and have examined them thoroughly, have 
read them carefully. There is room for 
slight criticism, but the artist is well aware 
of defects that the ordinary reader could 
not detect and which will be remedied in 
future luuubers. It is published at Hve 
dollars per part. This will seem high to 
many but it is w’ell worth much more. The 
book as a whole is simply superb. The 
plates are so real, and artistically drawn, 
and the text is a simple statement of 
facts in plain English that must win all 
readers, to all who can aft’ord it we say 
buy this work. It will always be worth 
the subscription price. Dr. Coues endor¬ 
ses it unreservedly, and to the extent of 
its cost it is one of the finest works ever 
published and devoted to Natural Science. 
Since the above was w ritten we have re¬ 
ceived number eight of the above work, 
which contains the Cardinal Redbirds nest 
and eggs. Warbling and Red eyed Vireo’s 
nests and eggs, also the nest and eggs 
of the Carolina Dove, all of which are 
finely executed. The text as usual is so 
plain that a child can understand it. It 
is a misfortmie to the Science that the 
above work is not better known so that a 
larger colored etlition would be circulated. 
“The Illinois State Laboratoi'y of Natu¬ 
ral history; Bulletin, No. 3,” containing 
studies of the Food of Birds, Insects and 
Fishes, made at the Illinois State Labora¬ 
tory of Natural History at Normal, Illinois, 
by S. A. Forbes. Sixty-nine pages of the 
above work are devoted to an exceedingly 
valuable article on “‘The Food of Birds,” 
which should be read by every ornitholo¬ 
gist who can fairly claim to be a natural¬ 
ist. They will there find much food for 
thought. 
We are indebted to a modest friend 
“away down East” for a vahudile pamph¬ 
let entitled. “Report of the Commissioners 
of Fisheries and Game of the State of 
Maine for 1880.” This report conbiins 
considerable information about the recently 
imported “Messina Quail,” which seems to 
have bred quite freely during the year 
1880. It states that “the eggs of the quail 
are of a greenish color profusely blob'hed 
with brown, ” but are said to fade quickly 
when exposed to the light. For want of 
room we sluill forego making the extrai'ts 
we desire until some future time. 
