Jan., 19051 THE CONDOR 15 were all on the ground and, while always more or less concealed, yet it seemed to me that the rich buff-colored eggs were rather conspicuous objects. A single egg was first discovered on June 12 in a battered old nest of 19o2, or possibly even an earlier date. The egg was a dried up specimen of chalky appearance, which had lost its original color and lustre, having lain under many feet of snow for one win- ter at least. The nest still showed a slight concavity, being protected under the outer edge of a mass of deer brush (Ueanothus vehdinus). On June 13 a nest full of egg-shells was found neatly tucked away along the northwest side of a small boulder and partly concealed by dwarf manzanita. The shells seemed to repre- sent about eight eggs and still possessed their color and lustre to a remarkable de- gree. Evidently, however, these too had passed through a winter, for the snow had only recently disappeared from this locality and indeed still existed in isolated drifts of considerable magnitude. Acting on this clue [ found two days later, June 15, a nest with seven eggs in a precisely similar situation and partly concealed by the same kind of dwarf manzanita sprays. It was composed of pine needles and was eight inches in diameter and three inches deep in the center. This nest was carefully observed during the remainder of our stay at Blood's, or until June 21. On the I7th eight eggs were in the nest and another was laid on the 19th, appar- ently during the early morning. At eleven o'clock a.m. on the 2oth, the nest still contained nine eggs but before one o'clock of the same day a tenth had been added. The female was on the nest at lO a.m. the following day b?t I approached her too closely and she left the nest without having laid another egg. Whether she would have done so I did not determine, not caring to collect the bird and this being the last day of our stay at Blood's. My fourth nest was also found on June 15, and like the other contained seven eggs. It was in rather an open situation under a Murray pine and five feet away from the trunk, was composed entirely of pine needles and measured nine inches in diameter and three inches in ' depth. Like the two last it was partially concealed by low sprigs of manzanita. Eight eggs were in the nest when visited the next day, the 16th, nine were found on the 18th, ten on the 2oth and eleven on the 21st. These two cases then are not in agreement with Major Bendire's statement that "an egg is laid daily until the set is complete. "a The fifth nest was found on June 2o by tramping through deer brush near the place where a male had been heard calling for several days. It was the best concealed of any, being under quite a thick mass of ceanothus, though I hardly think I should have overlooked it, even though the female had not flushed with a great whiff of wings when I was three or four feet away from her. The nest was quite well constructed of coarse dry grass, a few small twigs, and many breast feathers from the bird. The measurements were the same as those of the last nest described and the eggs were twenty-two in number, laid in two layers, the lower of nineteen eggs with three on top in the center. The set was probably complete, as the bird was again flushed from the nest after an hour or two, though the eggs showed no entirely positive trace of incubation. The question naturally arises in case of a set of this size whether it might have been the joint product of two females. I could not decide this point and the eggs themselves did not make the matter clear. Both long ovate and short ovate forms were in the nest but there were also intermediates and the color tones showed but little variation. I might say in this connection that before I discovered this nest I was drawn away in the opposite direction for a considerable distance by a clucking sound which certainly came from a plumed quail. It was impossible to see the bird, however, a Bendire's Life Histories of N. A. Birds, Vol. I, p. i6.
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