274 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. x. 



August to October, and probably these late moulting in- 

 dividuals are birds which have been hatched in late autumn 

 or even winter. The above facts, no doubt, account for the 

 supposed differences, so often noticed, between home-bred 

 and so-called "Foreign" or " Continental " Wood-Pigeons. 

 The origin of flocks which appear in any district cannot be 

 known, they may have come from overseas and they may 

 have come from other parts of the British Isles and while I 

 do not deny that Wood-Pigeons do come over from the 

 continent in considerable numbers, it should be pointed out 

 that if there are two distinct European forms they must be 

 differentiated by the comparison of birds whose breeding 

 places are known for certain. 



It has also been a belief on the coast of Norfolk that the 

 migrant Blackbirds which appear there are distinguishable 

 from our home-bred birds. It is usually said that the males 

 are smaller and have black-bills, but all male Blackbirds in 

 their first winter (until about January or February) have 

 blackish bills and such birds would be slightly smaller on the 

 average than adults. At the meeting of the British Orni- 

 thologists' Club, held on December 13th, 1916, Mr. C. D. 

 Borrer exhibited wings and heads of some of these migrant 

 Blackbirds shot on the Norfolk coast in November (c/. Bull. 

 B.O.C., Vol. XXXVII., p. 19) and these undoubtedly belonged 

 to first winter birds, as could be seen by a certain number of 

 brownish feathers on the heads and by the worn and brownish 

 outer feathers of the greater wing-coverts (c/. Ticehurst, 

 Brit. B., III., p. 323). H. F. Witherby. 



RARE TYPE OF REDSHANK'S EGGS. 



On May 10th, 1914, the late Capt. C. S. Meares took a re- 

 markable clutch of three eggs of the Redshank {Tringa 

 totanus) in Norfolk. Incubation had commenced. The 

 ground-colour is distinctly green, without a trace of buff, 

 and the markings are slighter and darker than the average. 

 Though I have examined scores of nests I have never seen 

 Redshank's eggs before which showed a green ground-colour, 

 nor are any examples figured in Poynting's " Limicolse." 

 The eggs are slight!}^ smaller than the average, and are less 

 bulky at the larger end than most eggs of this species. 



D. H. Meakes. 



SPOTTED REDSHANK IN SUSSEX IN WINTER. 



On January 4th, 1917, I heard the note of a Spotted Red- 

 shank {Tringa erijthropiis) on Crowhurst Marshes, close to St. 

 Leonards-on-Sea. Shortly afterwards I heard the bird 



