TOTANUS GLOTTIS. 133 
nest. I then got up and fired my gun, and made direct for the place 
where the bird got up, and to my great satisfaction I got four eggs.” 
[Two of the four eggs Mr. Wolley gave to Mr. Wilmot, in whose collection 
in the Cambridge Museum they still are. A third he gave to Mr. Salmon. ] 
§ 3584. One.—Loch Eriboll, Sutherland, [May ?], 1852. 
The other three [eggs of this nest] I have parted with. One I 
gave to Dr. Frere, one I let Mr. Green have, and the third I have 
(31 January, 1853) presented to Mr. Clennell Wilkinson. This 
fourth egg enables me now to have the eggs of this bird from four 
different nests and from three different persons in distinct localities 
in Sutherland. My first four eggs were from two nests taken by 
John Sutherland, the gamekeeper, in Assynt [§ 3582], the next four, 
of which I let Mr. Wilmot have two, were from a nest by the side of 
Kinloch, taken by Donald M‘Kay in 1852 [§ 3583], and the present 
egg was taken by William Weir, the foxhunter, who lives by the side 
of Loch Eriboll. All these three persons ignorant previously of the 
character of the egg, but knowing the bird and searching specially 
for its nest. It is very satisfactory to find all these eggs agreeing 
with one another in general character. The first fonr were seen by 
Mr. John: Hancock at Newcastle, and declared by him to be like his 
own, and so they appeared to me, though I did not place them side 
by side. One at least of his four eggs was from Bantock, the head 
gamekeeper at Dunrobin. 
| This nest of eeys came into Mr. Wolley’s possession through the above- 
mentioned Donald M‘Kay, who enclosed the letter from Weir referring to 
them, dated “ Hielam, June 2, 1852,” which letter Mr. Wolley copied into his 
Ege-book. In it the writer said: “ I send you these few lines to let you know 
that I have got some eggs which are rare to be got anywhere but in Sutherland- 
shire itself. The name of the bird which laid them is the Greenshank. I have 
four of the eggs, and I was keeping them for a person who spoke for them last 
harvest, at least he sent me word at that time, desiring me to keep them for 
him this season if I could get them, and that he would give me five shillings 
each for them ; but he is at present in Edinburgh, and I suppose he will not 
be down my way this season.” Who this person was does not appear, but 
M‘Kay subsequently wrote (14 June, 1852): “I went to see the man at Hielam 
last Saturday, and got the eggs from him. They are a deal lighter in colour 
than the Greenshank eggs I sent you formerly (§ 3583), and as lam not 
acquainted with the Greenshank’s eggs I cannot say for a certainty whether 
they are really the kind or not; but I went to the loch-side where he found 
them, and where the birds still remain. They are the very same kind as those 
