Birds' Eygs in the Transixial Museum. 71 



i)een made by and exchanges effected with the well-known 

 specialist Major Sparrow, and some interesting gifts have 

 been made from time to time by local persons interested in 

 the science. Of the remainder it may be remarked that 

 Mr. Krantz, whose name frequently appears here, was the 

 taxidermist of the local museum prior to the war, and 

 Mr. Wilde is a practical and locally well-recognized natu- 

 ralist and hunter with much Rhodesian experience. The 

 provenance and identity of the specimens described may be 

 therefore regarded as substantially without doubt. 



I may, perhaps, add a few remarks relative to my 

 descriptions. 



The shape of eggs is always hard to describe accurately. 

 Most eggs have a well-marked obtuse end and an acute or 

 narrow or lower end ; few are really oval, many are ovate, 

 and most taper slightly from obtuse to acute length. The 

 narrower end of an egg is, as a rule, less splashed with colour 

 than the obtuse — perhaps at the greatest enlargement of the 

 ovipository organs the pigment-glands are most extended 

 and deposit most freely, which would account for the 

 tendency to zoning in colour in the eggs of many species. 



An accurate description of colour is also most difficult, 

 and depends much upon personal expressions of colour and 

 the light in which an egg is examined. 



I use the word " texture " throughout as an indication of 

 appearance under a low microscopic power and the feel of 

 the egg when applied to the cheek. 



2. CoRVUs SCAPULATUS, Daud. (Pied Crow.) 

 This species is poorly represented by six eggs only. 



1. Clutch 4: 9.10.04. Six Mile Spruit, Pretoria district, 



Transvaal : e coll. Austin Roberts. 



2. Two eggs : Nov. 1904. Id. loc. : taken by E. M. Skea. 

 These six eggs are from the same nest and the product of 



the same pair of birds. They consequently do not vary much 

 inter se, though they are, on comparison with licichenovv's 

 measurements, all of rather small size. The ne.<t, a rouixh 



