584 Letters, Extracts, Notices, b^c. 



Sirs, — It has been a doubtful point for some time among 

 British ornithologists which of the Gull-tribe lays the 

 beautiful eggs suffused with salmon-piuk or reddish buff 

 now to be seen in many of our collections. The late Mr. 

 Seebohm attributed some examples taken at Vardo to the 

 Glaucous Gull, while others have been supposed to belong 

 to the Greater Black-back. During a short visit this year to 

 some of the islands in the north of Norway, I had the pleasure 

 of observing a Gull on one of these red eggs. Before my 

 arrival two red eggs had been taken from a nest shown to 

 me, and another nest had been made by the same pair of 

 Gulls a few yards off, in which was a splendid specimen. I 

 lay down behind some rocks about 60 yards away, and, after 

 waiting 20 minutes,a Herring-Gull [Larus argentatus)yfdA\ieA. 

 quietly up to the nest and settled. I watched her through 

 my glasses for some time, and am as sure of her identity as 

 if I had shot and handled her ; but as the owner of the 

 island asked 80 kroner for permission to shoot the bird, his 

 price was rather too high, so I hope my readers will accept 

 the identification, without requiring her skin as proof. 



I afterwards saw another e^^ in a nest 40 miles from the 

 above, and was assured that it belonged to L. argentatus ; 

 but in this case I did not see the bird sitting. To show how 

 scarce the red eggs are, I may say I went to a large group 

 of islands (10 miles from that first mentioned), where an 

 enormous number of Gulls breed. At the time of my visit 

 7320 eggs had already been sent to market, and the season 

 was not nearly over. Half of these I estimated to be from 

 L. argentatus, yet no red egg has ever been taken on this 

 group of islands. 



There is an even larger colony of L. argentatus at the 

 north end of Fuglo, a well-known bird-rock, but the Lapps 

 living there say they never find any red eggs. 



So far as I have been able to interview the owners of the 

 islands which produce red eggs, they have all assured me these 

 eggs are laid by L. argentatus ; but I should also state that 

 a Norwegian friend — a good naturalist — has reliable infor- 

 mation that a clutch of three red eggs has been taken from 

 L. marinus. 



