Page:Condor6(3).djvu/15

 68 THE CONDOR VoL VI TABL1 . OF MEASUREMI2NTS IN MILLIMETERS OF NORMAL AND SMALL.SIZI2D EGGS OF THE CAI,IFORNIA MURRE. TYPICAL EGGS SMALL I2GGS TYPICAL EGGS SMALL EGGS 5 o x 8r 43 x 69 6 52 x 86 42 x 79 5I "84 43" 69 7 52 "86 4I" 7I 5I "82 43" 67 8 53" 83 45" 69 52 "81 43" 70 9 52 "86 39" 60 52" 90 43" 65 io 52" 86 37 "63 EGGS OF CALIFORNIA iVlURRE Twelve Rock Wren Nests in New Mexico BY FLORENCE MERRIAM BAILEY ILLUSTRATED lrlTtl PHIITCGRAIIIS FROI'd TIlE BIOLCGICAL SURVEY COLLECTICN OCK wrens abound among the eroded sandstone cliffs and gulches of the plains region of New Mexico, and while we were working in the country last summer we found twelve of their nests and innumerable families of young birds. Our twelve nests were distributed over a period of three months with margins on either side, the first of those containing young being found on May e3, and the last on August 25. Of the four nests of young that we discovered, three were found between May 23 and June i. A nest containing six eggs on June e7 was our only record of eggs. As the wrens themselves identified eight of our twelve nests--the one con- taining eggs, the four with nestlings, and also three of the unoccupied nests, the old birds being in evidence about them--we became sufficiently fmniliar with the Salpinctian style of architecture to leave no doubt as to the identity of the remain- ing four. While the nests varied in bulk and the relative proportion of sticks, weeds, and grass stems used, and one builder so far departed from the general custom as to line with hair and feathers, one peculiarity' characterized all twelve of the