Eggs of certain South African rasserine BiriU. 9 



tliey are more or less concentrated round the larger end of 

 the shell so as to form an open zone. The underlying 

 lavender blotches and spots and the dark brown and nmber- 

 coloured sjiots and minute specks, even in the densest-spotted 

 egg, leave the ground-colour quite prominent, whiljit in the 

 other type the surface is but sparsely spotted. Only in one 

 of the eggs do the markings form an open zone : in all the 

 remaining eggs the s])ots are evenly distributed over the 

 entire surface of the shell. 



4^/t section. — Four clutches : two of three eggs and two of 

 two. They vary to some extent inter se, M'hereas the eggs in 

 each clutch do not vary very much. The ground-colour in 

 the first three eggs is almost white, with large and small spots 

 of pinkish-brown and lavender-grey ; on one of the eggs are 

 some tiny dark brown spots ; all the spots are genei'ally 

 distributed on the surface and leave the ground-colour quite 

 prominent. In one clutch of two eggs the ground-colour is 

 creamy and the pinkish-brown and lavender spots evenly 

 distributed over the shell tend to hide the ground-colour, the 

 markings being larger in the one si)ecimen and smaller in 

 the other, with an indication of a cap. A third clutch, two 

 efi'GS, has the ground-colour creamv with laroer imderlving- 

 lavender spots and blotches, large and small roundish spots 

 of dark reddish-brown, the edges of most of these latter 

 spots confluent and reddish, but leaving the ground-colour 

 quite prouiinent. The fourth set, three eggs, has the ground- 

 colour creamy, with underlying small lavender blotches and 

 large reddish spots and blotches of good size, roundish dark 

 brown spots about the size of a pin's head ; though these 

 larger markings combined with minute specks are boldly 

 distributed over the entire surface, the ground-colour is still 

 dominant. All four sets are slightly glossed. 



The shape of these eggs does not vary very much, being 

 of an ovate or elliptical -ovate form. In some of the 

 specimens the smaller end is rather pointed, and one of the 

 white eggs is approximately a short " fusiform." In size 

 the eggs in the individual clutches are very uniform. Some 

 measurements are : 



