GO BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vi. 



I have a clutch of six eggs of the Linnet [CarducUs c. canna- 

 bina) : five have the ground-colour A\hite, and the sixth and 

 last egg laid has a bright blue-green ground-colour. All the 

 eggs have the markings normal. 



I have two clutches (five and six) of eggs of the Sparrow- 

 Hawk (Accipiter n. nisus) with white ground-colour and deep 

 brown markings, with the exception of the last egg laid, 

 which in each case has a pale blue ground-colour and bright 

 red markings.* In one clutch four eggs have violet underlying 

 markings ; in the fifth and last egg these are absent. 



The odd egg, however, is not the last laid with all species. 

 Last year I found a nest of a Snipe {Gallinago g. gallinago) \\ith 

 two eggs only, one dark, the other pale. Subsequently two 

 more pale eggs were laid. Of course I cannot be certain, but 

 I should be inclined to say that the dark egg was the first laid, 

 judging by my, experience with other nests of this species and 

 the Redshank, where the dark egg has been the first laid. I 

 also found a nest of the Meadow-Pipit [Anthtis pratensis) with 

 one egg dark broAvn, and three pale grey. The following 

 day a further pale grey egg was laid, \\hich completed 

 the clutch. 



In looking through my series I find in clutches of Robin, 

 Whitethroat, Great Tit, Golden-crested Wren and Magpie, 

 where there is an odd egg it is pale, but in those of the Black- 

 bird, Carrion-Crow, Curlew, Tree-Pipit, Meadow-Pipit, Lesser 

 Tern, Common Tern, Skylark, Kestrel, Redshank, Snipe, and 

 Corn-Bunting, both pale and dark odd eggs occur, whereas 

 in the Lapwing and Kentish Plover the ground-colour is 

 sometimes paler or darker in one egg, the surface-markings 

 being pretty equal in all eggs in the clutch. Ringed Plover 

 clutches do not as a rule contain an odd egg. but I have one 

 in which three eggs are blotched and the fourth finely spotted, 

 and another clutch is exactly the reverse. C. W. Colthrup. 



CROSSBILL NESTING IN BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 

 I HA.VE just seen some back numbers of British Birds 

 containing records of Crossbills {Loxia c. curvirostra) in 

 various counties. As Buckinghamshire seems to be absent 

 from the list of nesting-counties (Vol. IV., p. 333), the fol- 

 lowing record, though belated, may be of interest : — • 



* This may he due simply to fading from exposure to light. The 

 blue ground tends to fade to white, and red-brown turns to sepia-brown. 

 This has been the case with exposed nests of Sparrow-Hawk .several 

 times in my experience, so that one could tell almost at a glance the 

 order in which the eggs were laid. — F. C.R.J. 



