September 



observed a similar egg, but this time pure white, 

 lying in an excavation that had been screened by 

 the overhanging edge of the ditch. This we like- 

 wise secured, holding it to be another variety. 



We bore those eggs carefully home, with much 

 speculation by the way as to the nature of the bird 

 which made a nest a foot across at the base of trees 

 standing in open grass fields, and which, upon 

 occasion, was capable of excavating an earthy nest 

 equally large, depositing therein an egg of com- 

 mensurate bulk. 



Upon our reaching home, the verdict of the 

 kitchen was that those eggs were the production of 

 the ordinary domestic hen. There is not much 

 ornithology in a kitchen. 



After searching carefully through the illustrations 

 and descriptions of the eggs of the larger species 

 of wild fowl, it became evident that our specimens 

 were either too rare or too common to be included 

 among the eggs of regular British breeding birds. 

 It then required only a little time to enable the latter 

 view to mature, and we relinquished them, with not 

 a little heartburning, to the prosaic offices of the 

 kitchen. 



Having eaten those eggs, we are in a position 

 to affirm that they were freshly laid eggs of the 

 domestic hen, which, although also a reliable ob- 

 servation, is probably of no great ornithological 

 interest. 



We have seen many birds and nests and eggs 

 3 



