Dan Meinertzhagen's Diary. 79 



west ; so we live in hopes of a fine day to 

 morrow. In every clutch of pine Grosbeak's 

 eggs, there appears to be one dull coloured egg, 

 resembling that of a Blackbird, more or less, 

 except being a little bluer. A full clutch seems 

 to be five, sometimes four. There was a com- 

 mon Gull strutting about the village yester- 

 day. I got the four Goshawk's eggs, taken at 

 Hetta, to-day, which the man promised to bring. 

 It seems curious that two birds so near akin as 

 this bird and the Sparrow Hawk, should lay 

 such different eggs. 



jMie gth. — On sexing a Dusky Redshank, 

 taken on the eggs, I found it was a male. The 

 eggs were almost hatching. I wonder if the 

 male bird had performed the whole duty of 

 incubation. 



There are a lot of salmon jumping about in 

 the rapids. We have seen the first Reeves 

 about, yesterday and to-day ; the Ruffs have 

 apparently been here much longer than their 

 mates. 



To-day is Bob's coming-of-age birthday, and as 

 it is becoming on such a day, we made it a record. 

 The following is a list of what we obtained : 



R. P. H. 87 grayling, averaging \ lb. 

 6 trout, ,, If lb. 



2 perch, ,, ^ lb. 



