Xvil 
quite impossible for every person to track the egg and 
the bird to their authenticity as Seebohm tracked his 
Bewick Swan on the Siberian Tundra. If we are to have 
the egg of ‘Mc.Queen’s Bustard,’ and ‘Pallas’ Sand 
Grouse,’ we must trust Herr Tancré, and he his collector ; 
we cannot all visit Turkestan. I have been told, I can- 
not vouch for the truth, that to hunt for the egg of the 
Courser, on its Algerian plains, one would require an 
escort of soldiers for protection. 
I have said almost all eggs can be discriminated by 
experienced persons; and to this end Mr. Seebohm’s 
admirable work is valuably subservient ; his system of 
comparison of one egg with another ; both as to the like- 
ness or the dissimilarity is especially useful. One would 
have liked more notice taken of the texture of certain 
eggs. 
And here the, otherwise almost perfect, illustrations 
sometimes fail, the glossiness, or dulness were quite within 
the artist’s means of representation ; it is true that some 
eggs of the same species are glossier than other some; but 
in my limited collection (I have but full clutches gener- 
ally, rarely a series, and therefore here, as everywhere 
else, I speak under correction), the Charadriidz are (with 
the exception of the Dotterel), and notably the Pratincole 
is, much less glossy than the Scolopacidz ; compare the 
Killdeer, and Ringed Plovers; with the Common and 
Spotted Sandpipers; and then compare the illustrations. 
Mr. Seebohm apologises for the illustrations; there 
is always the difficulty of accurate representation in the 
matter of hand portraiture; and the further difficulty in 
mechanical transfer, for multiplication of the copies for 
publication; but, with a few exceptions, which may 
mainly be put down to the transfer, this apology is not 
needed. The eggs are exquisitely rendered; and in ad- 
