THE SUPPOSED EGGS OF THE WOOD-SANDPIPER 75 



to have been found in Scotland by the late Mr. Charles 

 Thurnall. 



" I will only add that few, if any, men had a better eye 

 for a bird's egg than my brother, and that he was at the 

 time perfectly familiar with eggs of the Wood-Sandpiper, 

 for some dozens, not to say scores, of specimens obtained 

 in Holland had passed through our hands, or been under 

 our inspection, between 1848 and 1853 the year in which 

 he wrote these letters." 



Extracts from the enclosures referred to. 



1. From letter dated 7th Nov. 1853 "Thurnall only 

 told me about finding the nests of the two Dotterels and 

 the Wood-Sandpiper ; the former were done by watching the 

 old birds on, and the latter he happened to find when he was 

 walking with some ladies on a Sunday. He saw the bird get 

 up, and he was quite certain that it was not the Common 

 Sandpiper ; he did not like to leave the eggs as there was a 

 boy near ; it was in a birch wood, by the side of a stream, 

 and the nest was under a dead bough." 



2. From letter dated 23rd Nov. 1853 "I had a most 

 successful day yesterday, not that I got much out of 

 Thurnall, but he was very jolly and good natured. He had 

 given all his Grasshopper Warbler eggs away except one, 

 which I did not like to ask for ; he gave me four Goldfinch's. 

 He has three Dotterel's and two Wood-Sandpiper's : the 

 former are very nice eggs, the latter I do not like at all, 

 and between you, me, and the post are only hypoleucos, 

 their only likeness to glareola is in the shape and disposition 

 of the blotches, but in colour and size they are hypoleucos, 

 and I have very little doubt that they are only the latter ; 

 he says himself that he is not certain that the bird had a 

 white rump, but what struck him was that the bird was 

 spotted like glareola" 



In a further letter to me dated iQth July 1901, Professor 

 Newton added " It is only a question of opinion against 

 opinion ; but I have not a doubt that my brother's was right, 

 and that the bird seen by Thurnall was only T. Jiypoleucus. 

 If it had been, as he imagined, T. glareola he would hardly 



