OF HARTING. 289 



that in all probability the same egg, before it is twenty 

 years older, will have considerably increased in value.* 

 Of the Black-tailed Godwit (Limosa melanurd) we 

 know no more than that a specimen was shot at the 

 Blackrye Pond in the autumn of 1858. 



The Green Sandpiper (Totanus ochropus) we have 

 more than once in autumn flushed and shot in a 

 meadow near the Brick-kiln Copse, through which a 

 shallow stream from the Great pond flows, with many 

 curves and windings, towards the " Red Sea ;" and we 

 have repeatedly seen the Common Sandpiper (Actitis 

 hypoleucos] on the banks of the pond after the middle 

 of May. On one occasion especially, we had been 

 watching a pair of these birds through a binocular, and 

 endeavouring to approach them as noiselessly and 

 stealthily as we possibly could. The dark brown un- 

 dulations and other details of their glossy plumage, 

 their eyes, bills and legs, the singular movements of 

 their bodies, we could make out almost as distinctly 

 as if they were within arm's length of us, and we were 

 mentally indulging a hope that, for once, they might 

 forego their annual visit to the north, when . . they 

 were suddenly put to flight, and sent skimming over 

 the water by a very undignified splash that we made 

 in stepping unexpectedly knee deep into a stream 

 that intervened between us. We had not forgotten 

 this stream, which we were well aware was flowing 

 from the pond-head across our path ; but in our un- 



Since the above was written, we have seen an egg at a 

 dealer's in London, labelled " Egg of the Great Auk, price .40," 

 but this is a trifle as compared to the sum required for another 

 Oological celebrity, the egg of the Dinornts, an extinct bird of 

 New Zealand. In Hardwicke's Science Gossip, Vol. II. pp. 14, 

 15, we read the following : "We were led into an error in our 

 last number (p. 282) in stating that the Moa-'s Egg was sold for 

 ;i2o. It is true that this was the highest bidding, but there 

 was a reserve beyond that sum, and we are told that the egg is 

 to be repacked and sent back to New Zealand, as its owner is 

 not disposed to part with it at that price." 



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