(GEOCOCCYX CALIFORNIANUS).

For the Sunny South Oologist:

This species (which may be described as a rather long tail with a small bird on the “for’ard” end of it) occurs rarely in this locality. Ornithologists generally give the number of eggs in a set as “6 to 9.” I had previously taken several sets, containing from two to four eggs; and finding a nest with two eggs on May 8th, 1885, I concluded to give the bird a chance to fill out the set. The nest was placed in the bushy top of a small black-jack oak, about twelve feet from the ground. It was a bulky structure 16 inches in diameter, 5 inches in depth, and nearly flat on the top—not more than an inch deep, built of large sticks, twigs, and weeds in the lining. I visited the nest on the 9th and 10th, and although the bird was “tu hum” every time, the set had not increased any in number. During the 11th, 12th and 13th, three more eggs were added to the set, making five in all. I waited until the 19th, when, as no more eggs were laid, I took the nest, shooting the female. On dissection I found that within the next two or three days two more eggs would have been added to the set. Incubation was about one-half advanced in two of the eggs. The question is, can I call this a full set? The female when flushed from the nest would fly to the ground, and all to be seen of her afterwards was a streak. They are famous runners, and it takes a fast “pony” to overtake them.

J. A. Singley,

Giddings, Texas.

The Chinese pheasants turned loose in Oregon some time since have interbred with the native grouse, and a new game bird with the head of a pheasant and wing and tail feathers of a grouse is the result.