68 OTIS TARDA. 
now recollect. The following he allowed me to extract from his 
note-book :— 
“Sept. 28th, 1833.—Mr. Ashbey of Lynn sent me a pair of the 
Bustards ( Otis tarda) eggs; they were taken from Massingham heath 
in the spring with three other eggs, forming two pairs and asingle one, 
- there being three females but no male bird.” 
Mr. Salmon keeps all his eggs under glass, with the glass fastened 
down with black paper, such as is used for cases of stuffed birds. 
To-day I saw his method of opening one by cutting through the 
paper with a penknife. He has very rarely opened these Great 
Bustards’ since they were first put under glass, and so they have 
completely retained their freshness. On raising them the discoloration 
Mr. Salmon had told me of was quite perceptible upon both. They 
had had their holes stopped with white paper, which remained perfectly 
clean, shewing how little they had been handled. As this paper was 
larger than necessary I took it off in Mr. Salmon’s presence, and put 
on another piece with his assistance. At my request Mr. Salmon 
wrote what he has upon the egg. There was no inscription before on 
either of them. They were lying, like Mr. Salmon’s other eggs, in 
moss (Hypnum splendens) beautifully carded and arranged. The 
other egg is just the same shape as this, but is of deeper markings, 
and of the full brown colour, and has not that peculiar leaden tint 
which this one has. Yet this is characteristic of the Bustard eggs in 
some of its varieties, and is not due to fading from exposure, or 
incipient putresence. In case at any time this account should come 
into the hands of anyone who does not know Mr. Salmon, I must 
add for their benefit that I consider it next to impossible that there 
should be any error or mistake of any kind in the identity of this egg 
with one of the pair he mentions in the ‘ Magazine of Natural History’ 
as being in his possession in 1833, and taken with three other eggs at 
Massingham Heath the same year, that is twenty years since this 
spring. Mr. Salmon had had a great many applications for these 
eggs at different times, all which he had hitherto resisted. My 
obligations to him are therefore very great. 
I have lately (about 7 February, 1856) had another talk with 
Mr. Salmon, and looked over his notes. The note copied above was 
written at or about the time the eggs came into his possession, as 
appears by the succeeding and immediately preceding entries, and by 
Mr. Salmon’s recollection. 
Mr. Ashbey was a tailor, and being in the habit of often travelling 
about, had seen these eggs, at Massingham probably, and coming to 
