70 Mr. J. A. Bucknill on South African 



Dr. Gunning prepared — prior to the war — a small collection 

 of eggs o£ various species of birds. This small collection, 

 since it was removed into the new Museum in Boom Street, 

 Pretoria, has, through Dr. Gunning's energy, been added to 

 and much amplified by purchase and exchange until it now 

 is, probably, the finest and most important collection of the 

 eggs of South African birds, contained under one roof, in 

 the world. 



I had hoped that I should have had the privilege of being 

 able, with the assistance of my friend Mr. C. B. Horsbrugh, 

 to describe carefully the whole of this Oological Collection, 

 but unfortunately, after completing an account of a very few 

 species, my official duties were demanded away from the 

 Transvaal, and I had, perforce, to leave my task unfinished. 

 In this short paper I have endeavoured to describe those 

 eggs in the collection of the Transvaal Museum which I, 

 personally, — during my leisure hours in 1906 — had the 

 chance of carefully measuring, examining, and recording. 

 I can only regret that the time at my disposal did not permit 

 me to examine more. 



In the Museum cases the eggs are exhibited to the public 

 in the sequence and under the nomenclature of Ileicheuow. 

 1 regret that I have not Reichenow's work before me, and 

 therefore present my notes in order, number, and nomen- 

 clature of Sclater's " Check-List of the Birds of South 

 Africa" (Annals of the South African Museum, vol. iii. 

 part viii.). It is perhaps necessary to add that the collection 

 (numbering some 900 clutches) is in no way a haphazard 

 conglomeration of doubtfully identified eggs. A few— a very 

 few — of the older eggs were obtained from the Pietermaritz- 

 burg Museum, but practically all of these have long since 

 been discarded. The large majority of the specimens in the 

 collection have been obtained by the acquisition of the collec- 

 tioiis — or part of the collections — of perhaps the best-known 

 and most reliable oologists in South Africa — Mr. Austin 

 Roberts, of Potchefstroom, Transvaal, and Mr. P. H. Ivy, of 

 Graliamstown, Cape Colony. Valuable presentations have 



