Birds. 141 



relics. Yours, &c. — N. S. Hodson. Bury St. Edmunds, 

 MayS. 1832. 



Eggs. — It appears, from official statements, that the eggs im- 

 ported from France amount to about 60,000,000 a year; and 

 supposing them to cost, at an average, 4rf. per dozen, it follows, 

 that the people of the metropolis and Brighton (for it is into 

 these ports they are almost all imported) pay the French above 

 83,000/. a year for eggs : and, supposing that the freight, im- 

 porters' and retailers' profit, duty, &c, raise their price to 106?. 

 per dozen, their total cost will be 213,000/. The duty, in 

 1 829, amounted to 22, 189/. ( M'CullocWs Dictionary of Com- 

 merce, p. 515.) 



Little Bustard (Cftis Tetrax L.). — A specimen of this rare 

 bird was shot on Berry Down, in the parish of Lanreath, 

 among the heath, Sept. 23. 1831. Its weight was 1 lb. 14 oz. : 

 length from bill to tail, 18 in. ; to the toes, \Q\ in. : expanse of 

 wings, 2 ft. 11 in. The plumage was such as is figured by 

 Bewick, and described as that of the female, having no black, 

 or band of white, about the neck; yet, on dissection, it proved 

 to be a male. As a remark similar to this has been made 

 before, it becomes a question whether, in fact, the male, 

 after moulting, does not assume the plumage of the female ? 

 — J. Couch. Polperro, Cornwall, July, 1832. 



A Pair of Ferruginous Ducks (A^nas rutila L.), by far the 

 rarest of the British genus v4 v nas, out of a flock of five, 

 w r as shot on Otmoor Common, a few miles from Oxford, in 

 March last, by Mr. Forrest of the High Street. Of this 

 bird, Latham says, " One was killed in Lincolnshire ; .and 

 Mr. Pennant has received it from Denmark." Linnaeus, in 

 his Fauna Suecica, says, it is sometimes, but seldom, met 

 with in Sweden ; and Temminck informs us that it is found 

 in the eastern parts of Europe, in Persia, India, and also 

 in Africa. He adds that it builds its nest, in Russia, in 

 the holes of rocks, sometimes in the hollows of trees, or in 

 the deserted holes of otters and other animals, along the 

 banks of rivers, and lays eight or nine white eggs ; and this 

 is, I believe, all that has ever been known respecting it. The 

 following is the description taken of the male specimen by Mr. 

 Forrest and myself, the morning after it was shot. I have 

 sent it because that of Bewick and Montagu is confessedly 

 imperfect: — Length, 19§ in. : head, neck, cheeks, throat, 

 and flanks, of a bright ferruginous chestnut ; on the chin was a 

 spot of dirty white : belly, under tail coverts, speculum or 

 beauty-spot, whitish : back, scapulars of a dark-brown finely 

 speckled with ferruginous, and slightly tinged with olive; 

 tertials, dark olive green ; tail, cuneiform; tail feathers, 14 in 



