Review of M. 0. Des Murs' ' Oologie Ornithologique.' 333 



few points which may have special interest to some of our 

 readers. 



Speaking of the group Turdinte, M. Des Murs says (p. 292), 

 " Parmi les oeufs d'un vert luisant et tiquete de noir, nous ne 

 counaissons encore que I'oeuf des T. musicus, iliacus, d'Europe, 

 et densirostnsy des Antilles;" and then a little further on 

 (pp. 292, 293), " D'apres ce qui precede, on pourrait creer, pour 

 cellcs des especes du genre Turdus que nous prenons pour Grives 

 proprement dites, par leur oeuf, uu genre sous le nom de Iliacus, 

 que nous proposons pour les T, musicus, iliacus et densirostris, et 

 pour les autres especes qui viendront s'y joindre par la suite, et 

 reserver la denomination generique de Turdus pour toutes les 

 especes dont Toeuf est analogue a celui du T. merulaJ' 



Now we cannot but look upon this suggestion of our author's 

 as a singularly unfortunate one. We have already mentioned 

 the suspicion excited in our mind by the entry in thePhiladelphian 

 Catalogue of eggs from M. Des Murs' collection to which the 

 name of Turdus iliacus is applied, while France is given as the 

 locality whence they come. This suspicion is converted, by the 

 passage above quoted from our author, into a pretty strong 

 belief that he has been entirely mistaken with regard to these 

 examples, and that he can never have seen genuine specimens of 

 the Redwing's eggs. Few oologists in England now require to 

 be told that this bird does not, as was asserted by Nilsson, and 

 after him by Temminck, Degland, and others, lay blue eggs 

 spotted with black. The additional evidence on the subject 

 which Mr. Hewitson was enabled, in the last edition of his work, 

 to give {' Eggs of Brit. Birds/ 3rd ed. p. 87), entirely sets the 

 question at rest, and would, we are sure, have saved M. Des Murs 

 from this error, had it not escaped his notice, for he is particularly 

 reconnaissant of the services rendered to oology by its English 

 votaries. Nor can we hardly think that, on the strength of the 

 agreement in the style of colour of their eggs, birds of such 

 different structure as our own Song Thrush, and the Turdus 

 densirostris of Vieillot, should be associated together. Indeed 

 the latter has for some time been separated from the genus 

 Turdus; and last year Mr. Sclatcr(rroc. Zool. Soc. 1859, p. 335) 

 deposited it in a new genus {Margarops) along with two other 



