168 Rev. H. B. Tristram on the Eygs of the 



Bellot Strait. No Ptarmigau were obtained in their summei 

 plumage, as they had all left in April. A peculiarity worth 

 noticing about these Ptarmigan is the relation between the length 

 of the intestinal caeca and that of the intestine. Only one spe- 

 cimen of the Willow Grouse {Tetrao saliceti) was examined; in 

 this the cseca were 27 inches long, gut 36 inches : in five 

 specimens of Ptarmigan {Tetrao lagopust) the proportion was 

 20 : 38, 19 : 43, 21 : 42, 22 : 45, 18i : 39. I subjoin a minute 

 description of these parts of our Tetrao lagopus. Two caca arise at 

 the side of the intestine, 5 inches from the anal orifice ; they are 

 connected to the gut by membrane for 2 inches. Hence (tracing 

 only one csecum), after these 2 inches it doubles upon itself for 

 2i inches, the two parts being closely connected, and then is 

 joined to the intestine for 1^ inch by a broad mesenteric mem- 

 brane ; it leaves the intestine again, doubling upon itself for 

 5 inches, and then, very closely tied to the gut, it runs along it for 

 6| inches, ending in an abrupt point 2 inches long, unconnected 

 to the gut. Length of caecum, 20 inches ; of gut, 38 inches. 

 I may remark that Sir James Ross, in the Appendix to Parry's 

 Third Voyage, states that he found, in the Tetrao lagopus, the 

 cseca two-thirds of the length of the intestine ; in the above case 

 they were not one-half. 



This paper is not introduced as containing any novelty, as 

 the ornithology of the Arctic regions is now so well known j 

 but only as an enumeration of the dififerent species met with. 



XX. — On the Eggs of the Nutcrackei- and Parrot-billed Cross 

 bill. By the Rev. H. B. Tristram, M.A., F.L.S. 



I FELT inclined to communicate a few remarks, prior to the 

 publication of the last Number of the ' Ibis,' on the Review of 

 recent oological works which appeared in No. 4, but I have 

 deferred doing so in the hope that Mr. J. Hancock, who had 

 proposed to supply some notes on the breeding of Loxia pityo- 

 psittacus, Totanus ochropus, and Fuligula cristata, might by 

 this time have fulfilled his intention. 



All conscientious collectors must, I am sure, most heartily 



