Page:Condor6(6).djvu/27

?68 THE CONDOR VoL. VI ional. I am quite able to agree with him, for in the large series that I have re- ferred to I have found only twenty-two eggs that measured 3.?o or more in length, and of those, fifteen exceeded 3.x5, four of these going beyond 3.20 inches. From these data the mammoth proportions of my eggs may perhapsbe better appreciated. They measure 3.47 by 2.62, and 3.37 by 2.64 inches. Plain figures, while doubt- less plain facts, are less readily digested than a more tangible object lesson, so I have included in a photograph for comparison, a large egg of a western red-tailed hawk, measuring 2.52 by 2.oo, an average golden eagle's egg measuring 2.97 by 2.23, and the larger of my large set measuring 3.47 by 2.62. From the photograph and measurements, it. will be seen that the large eagle's egg is as much larger than the average as that is larger than a red-taWs egg. In coloration, as appears in the photograph, the larger 4gg is the more lightly marked. The markings appear more as ingrained shell markings of faint lavender and umber, giving the egg the appearance of having a very dirty white ground color. There are a few superficial spots and small splashes of a darker shade. The smaller egg is very handsome, the markings being of a much brighter tint, making the f round appear brighter and clearer by cm?trast. As shown in the photograph, the markings are heavier at the small end. At the large end the markings are all nearly confluent but very faint in shade, and Imve more lhe ap- pearance of shell markings. The intermediate blotches and splashes are very bright. In both eggs the shell is very smooth, with few granulations. Incubation had just commenced and was equal in both eggs. One naturally wonders why there Should be so much difference between these eggs and others taken from the same nests and presumably the product of the same birds. A set of two taken from a "series of five" nests occupied by this pair of birds, are about average eggs, measuring 2.97 by 2.23 and 2.93 by 2.24 inches. The larger is the central egg in the photograph. The markings are strongly de- fined blotches and spots of a dark reddish brown and ahnost wholly at the larger end, no lavender shade appearing anywhere. The other egg is absolutely unmarked. The "Spook" Canyon bird was unusually dark seeming almost black, and very large?in fact the largest and blackest eagle I ever saw, and in perfect plumage. I had a good view of her when she left the nest for I xvas not five feet from her. Then after I had left the nest and was on the ground below not more .than fifty feet away she did what no eagle of my acquaintance ever did before, came back to the nest and settled down on it again with head up watching me and making a curious clucking, like the common call of the Cooper hawk, which she repeated a dozen times. Escortdido, Cali/ornia. An Ornithological Comparison of the Pajar0 Valley in California with Sioux County in Nebraska BY j. $. tlUNTER URING the summer of ?9o3 I was located in the Pajaro valley in Santa Cruz county, and it was with great interest that I compared ornithological conditions there with those in Sioux county in northwest Nebraska. Sioux county is bordered on the north by South Dakota and on the west by