VOL. VI.] NOTES. 161 



birds were there, and on the I'ound end could be discerned 

 a few light, bluish-grey spots ; and in shape and size they 

 were plovers' eggs. It was late, but I took a photograph 

 nevertheless, intending the next day to expose a Lumiere 

 colour-plate. On my return, however, the eggs were gone. 

 Unfortunately I had not shown the clutch to the watcher 

 (for the birds on Blakeney Point are protected) that evening, 

 and when I took him there the next morning, nothing 

 remained but the little sandy cup that had previously con- 

 tained them. Of course he thought I had lost the place, but 



UXPIGMEXTED KGCIS OF RIXGED PLOVER. 

 [Photographed by W. Rowan.) 



though we examined every sandy hollow within thirty or 

 forty feet, in this alone was the sand stuck together like a 

 cake, showing that it contained something sticky that the 

 others did not. That morning a few JaclidaMs had been 

 over from the mainland, and the watcher had no doubt 

 that they were the thieves. Two days later we found two 

 of the broken shells in the adjoining salt-marsh. Enough 

 remained to show the shape, so I took a picture of them as 

 they were. The third was never found. They were the first 

 unpigmented Ringed Plover's eggs which the watcher had 

 ever seen, and he could suggest no reason for the abnormality. 

 He seemed certain that the Jackdaws were the culprits, as 

 neither rats nor stoats would have taken them into the marsh, 

 which was then covered by high tides, although a bird might 

 have dropped them there. 



This led to a discussion on abnormally-coloured eggs. 

 He had a number of freak terns' eggs in his possession at 

 the time, found during many years, chiefly in 1911, when 

 unpigmented terns' eggs were common. 



