( r.73 ) 



other species, all the other allied species being before me. It is most similar to 

 the feraale of C. grandis Blyth, but a little paler and the wing longer, the latter 

 measuring full}- 3-0 inches, which is even longer than that given by Przcwalski. 



12. Acanthis brevirostris (Bp.). 

 Gates, in Hume's Nests and Eggs Iiid. B., ii., p. 15.5. 



Quite like the eggs of Acanthis flanrostris and cann<thina, but a little 

 smaller, measuring IT : 12'4 and 17-1 : I2'6 mm. Five and six in the clutcii. 



13. Lanius tephronotus (Vig.). 

 Gates, in Hume's Nests and Eggs Ind. B., i., p. 327 (1889). 



(Clutches of five eggs were found. They vary considerably, like other shrikes' 

 eggs. Some clutches consist of eggs with a pale greenish white shell, others of 

 such with a reddish buff shell, and the buff ones have reddish markings, the 

 greenish ones deep brown spots and pale sepia grey clouds, all after the fashion 

 of the eggs of Lanius coUurio. In size they vary considerably too, and some 

 clutches have a ringlike zone of spots near the thicker end, while in the reddish 

 clutch the markings are scattered all over the eggs. In size they resemble those 

 of Lanius rufus and its subspecies rutilans, or are larger and vary much, like 

 the latter, in size and form. 



14. Podoces humilis Hume. 



Several clutches of five eggs were sent. It surprised me not a little to see 

 these eggs, as they were pure white ! They are ovate and elongate ovate or oval, 

 moderately glossy, very smooth, and with several impressed lines along the surface, 

 and not at all unlike the eggs of Iijnx torquilla. If held against the light they 

 shine through white, not at all j'ellow or greenish. They measure 21'6 : 16-2, 

 23'5 : 16-0, 22-5 : 16'5, and about and between these measurements, and the shell 

 is rather hard. 



I am well aware that in the Journal J'iir Ornithologie, 1873, p. 03 and j)l. 3, 

 figs. 37, 38, the eggs of Podoces panderi Fischer were characterised as entirely 

 different, coloured and spotted, and that later collectors proved the correctness of 

 that description, and that it seems very remarkable that a bird C)f the same genus 

 should have such different eggs; but I have no reason to doubt the correctness of these 

 eggs of Podoces humilis. Herr TaucrS's collector, Riickbeil, who is entirely to be 

 trusted, according to Herr Tancrd, sent the bird, and on its label the remark that 

 the clutches numbered so-and-so belonged to it. Even if the collector had made 

 a mistake with the first nest, be would probably have discovered his mistake later 

 on. If we accept it as a fact that the white eggs of Podoces humilis are correct, 

 it would seem a shock to the enthusiastic oologists' belief in the importance of 

 oology in systematic questions, and I must admit that I hardly know of two other 

 birds of the same genus having so totally different eggs. (See former remarks 

 under Ruticilla frontalis, antea, p. 070.) 



15. Perdix sifanica Przew. 



A number of eggs are all alike, (piite like those of Perdix perdix (L.), but the 

 shell perhaps not quite so smooth. They have the well-known pale olive brown 

 or milk-and-coffee colour of our partridges' eggs, are inside sea-green by transparent 

 light, and measure 34 and 35 : 23 mm. 



