ON THE SUPPOSED EGGS OF THE WOOD SANDPIPER 15 



More and other writers refer. More's words (" Ibis," 1865, 

 p. 435) are : " My friend Mr. F. Bond tells me that he has 

 some eggs taken in Elginshire, which he considers belong 

 to the Wood Sandpiper." That Bond's eggs were from the 

 nest recorded by Thurnall there can, I think, be no doubt, 

 though positive proof may not be forthcoming. Assuming 

 that the specimens, or some of them (for Thurnall may not 

 have parted with the whole clutch), are still in existence in 

 the collection of Baron d'Hamonville (to whom Bond sold his 

 collection in 1875), or partly there and partly in Thurnall's 

 collection, wherever that may now be, it is far from certain 

 that their identity could now be established. Neither Bond 

 nor Thurnall, I understand, were in the habit of writing on 

 their eggs. Professor Newton tells me that, in a list of 

 Thurnall's collection drawn up after his death (some ten to 

 fifteen years ago"?), " 4 " Wood Sandpiper's eggs are entered ; 

 but no particulars are given, and these specimens, or some 

 of them, may very well have been Continental ones, which 

 were easily enough obtained in the " fifties." But even if 

 the Elgin eggs could be satisfactorily traced, there would 

 still remain the more difficult question Were they really 

 those of a Wood Sandpiper ? My own feeling is that they 

 were ; and it must be remembered that there is no inherent 

 improbability in this view, for the species was, as a matter of 

 fact, breeding in at least one county in Britain at the very 

 time Thurnall found the eggs under consideration. That 

 county was, of course, Northumberland, where Hancock's 

 historic nest was discovered on the 3rd of June, exactly ten 

 days after Thurnall's. It has to be noted, however, that 

 Yarrell does not appear to have been so sure of the 

 authenticity of the Elgin eggs as Bond was ; and he does 

 not even allude to them in the 3rd edition of his " British 

 Birds," published in 1856, though he there takes notice of 

 Hancock's record. 



The only other instance of the supposed nesting of the 

 Wood Sandpiper in Scotland is that related by Booth in his 

 " Rough Notes," the locality being Gullane Links in East 

 Lothian, and the date June 1867. But here again the 

 evidence is incomplete. 



The object of the above jottings is the elucidation of 



