Page:Condor16(4).djvu/11

July, 1914 PECULIAR DEATH O1? CALIFORNIA BUSH-TIT 169 This beautiful and, to the writer, unusual covering of the nest was quite sufficient to invite still closer examination, and the most unusual feature was yet to be discovered. On drawing dom the supporting branches ? to facilitate closer inspection, I was surprised to observe the tail and wing-tips of a bush- tit projecting from the side of the nest a couple of inches to the left of the entrance. Upon investigation I found that one of the little nest builders, for some reason which seems difficult to explain, had apparently attempted to tunnel through the side of the nest and, becoming entangled in the net4ike structure to such extent that it could not free itself, had perished. The. bird was thoroughly dried when found, so the nest was brought in and photo- graphed (see fig. 49). The tail and wings of the dead bird will be seen pro- jecting from the nest a little to the left of the entrance. The nest contained five eggs, three of which were broken. They had ap- parently been deposited at least two weeks previously, which would indicate a rather early nesting date for the species. Los Angeles, California, May 6, ?rp?r4. ON THE OOLOGY OF THE NORTH AMERICAN PYGOPODES By DR. R. W. SHUFELDT WITH FIVE PHOTOS BY THE AUTHOR AKEN collectively, the loons and grebes form a natural Supersuborder of birds, created to contain the Suborder Pygopodes, which latter is represented by two families, namely the Colymbidae or Grebes, and the Gaviidae or Loons. In my paper on "An Arrangement of the Families and Higher Groups of Birds," which appeared some time ago in The American Naturalist (vol. xxxvIII, nos. 455-456, Nov.-Dec., 19i)4), the lopn family bore the name of Urinatoridae, which, be it known, is co-equal with the family here called Gav. iidae; while the grebes, formerly called the Podi, cipidae, are, as an assemblage, now known as the Colymbidae. This constant changing of names, though doubtless necessary, is very inconvenient and confusing for the ornithologists of the present day; and every one will'surely rejoice when avian nomenclature eventually becomes fixed. For years the common loon was known as Colymbus torquatus;' and ?ow Colymbus, in modern American ornithological works, is only applied to the grebes, while the loons are all relegated to the genus Gavia. Why the last- named, as a family (Gaviidae), should, in a Suborder (Cepphi), be arrayed with the auks (Alcidae), as is the case in the classification adopted in the last edi- tion of "The A. O. U. Check-List of North American Birds," is, to me, quite in- comprehensible. Morphologically, a grebe and a loon are very much alike; while a loon is, structurally, quite a different bird from any species of auk known to me. In the present article I am to present some notes I have made and illus- trated with photographs of the eggs of our grebes and loons, much as was done in another contribution of mine, which appeared in a former issue of THE Cow- Dos1, devoted to the eggs of the North American limicoline birds. 1. SHUI?I?LDT, R.W. An Introduction to the Study of the Eggs of the North American Limicolae. THE CONDOR, vol. XV, no. 4, July-August, 1913, pp. 138-151; illustrated by 54 reproductions of photos of eggs of the shore-birds.