TRICKS OF THE TRADE. 203 



each ; indeed I have known a larger sum given for 

 a very ambiguous looking specimen in England, 

 6 warranted from the golden eagle/ but which to 

 an experienced eye had an unmistakeable look of 

 having emanated from a Norfolk turkey-yard. 



The peregrine falcon, the osprey, the kite, the 

 black-throated diver, and many others come under 

 the same category; their eggs are sought after 

 with the greatest avidity, and the price asked and 

 frequently given for them would be almost incre- 

 dible if it were not well authenticated. 



To a similar cause probably, as well as to its 

 large size and the exposed situation of its nest, 

 the bustard owes its now almost total extinction 

 in England. In Norfolk, which was, or is, its last 

 stronghold, the egg has for many years been worth 

 a guinea to him who was fortunate enough to find 

 it. As a natural consequence of this state of 

 things a set of itinerant charlatans have for some 

 time, and too frequently with success, driven a 

 thriving business by selling counterfeit specimens 

 of this and of almost every other valuable species 

 of egg. The deception is frequently so perfect 

 as to take in many an honest dealer who hereto- 

 fore nattered himself that he was ' up to ' all the 

 ' tricks of the trade/ and who would himself have 

 scorned to foist them in retail upon his own cus- 

 tomers. The great similarity which the eggs of 



