varied several times in a very remarkable manner. In Massachusetts I have known this species to have its complement of eggs by the 15th of April.
The eggs of this species are usually five, often four, and rarely six in number. They are of an oblong-oval shape, the smaller end but slightly more pointed than the other. They vary greatly in size, ranging from .90 to .80 of an inch in length, and averaging about .65 in breadth. Their ground-color is a pale greenish-white, marked with spots, lines, dots, and blotches of various shades of reddish and purplish brown. In some eggs the spots are few and small, chiefly confluent in a ring about the larger end, while the ground-color is very plainly distinguishable. In others the ground is nearly concealed by the abundance of the spots.
Genus COTURNICULUS, Bonap.
Coturniculus, Bonap. Geog. List, 1838. (Type, Fringilla passerina, Wils.)
Coturniculus passerinus.
38741 ♂
Gen. Char. Bill very large and stout, (except in C. lecontei); the under mandible broader, but lower than the upper, which is decidedly convex at the basal portion of its upper outline. Legs moderate, apparently not reaching to the end of the tail. The tarsus appreciably longer than the middle toe; the lateral toes equal, and with their claws falling decidedly short of the middle claw; the hind toe intermediate between the two. The wings are short and rounded, reaching to the base of the tail; the tertiaries almost as long as the primaries; not much difference in length in the primaries, although the outer three or four are slightly graduated. The tail is short and narrow, shorter than the wing (except in C. lecontei), graduated laterally, but slightly emarginate; the feathers all lanceolate and acute, but not stiffened, as in Ammodromus.
This genus agrees with Passerculus in the short and narrow tail. The wings are much shorter and more rounded; the feet shorter, especially the middle toe, which is not as long as the tarsus. The tail-feathers are more lanceolate. The bill is much larger, and more swollen at the base.
The essential characters of this genus consist in the swollen convex bill; the short toes, compared with the tarsus; the short and rounded wings; and the very small, narrow, slightly graduated tail, with its lanceolate acute feathers (except in the South American C. manimbe).
In some respects there is a resemblance to Ammodromus, in which, however, the bill is very much more slender; the wings still shorter, and more rounded; the tail-feathers much stiffer, and even more lanceolate; the toes extending beyond the tip of the tail; the middle toe rather longer than the tarsus, instead of considerably shorter.