On Birds' Eggs hi the British Masevm. 513 



XXIX. — Corrections to the ' Catalogue of the Collection of 

 Birds' Eggs in the British Museum.' By the Rev. F. C. 

 R. JouRDAiN, M.A., M.B.O.U. 



The first of the five volumes which comprise the ' Catalogue 

 of Eggs' was issued in 1901, and the fifth at the close of the 

 year 1912. During that period^ with the exception of one 

 or two typographical corrections, no list of errata has been 

 published. The present contribution applies only to the 

 Palffiarctic eggs, and is not intended to be exhaustive, as 

 many of them have not yet been critically examined by me ; 

 but it is hoped that it may prove useful to oologists. 



Although the British Museum collection is by far the 

 largest in the world as regards the number of specimens, it 

 is much inferior to that of Herr Nehrkorn in species. In 

 the volumes before us 3890 species are recorded and 69,828 

 specimens ; but the Nehrkorn collection contains no fewer 

 than 5440 species and subspecies, leaving a balance in favour 

 of the private collector of no fewer than 1550 species ! 

 'Considering the widespread interest which exists in England 

 in the study of oolog}'", is it too much to hope that, with 

 a little encouragement from the authorities of the British 

 Museum, our National collection might be raised to the same 

 level as that which has already been attained by a single 

 private collector ? 



The ' Catalogue' would, of course, have been infinitely more 

 valuable if it had contained references to those species which 

 are not represented in the collection as well as those of 

 which the Museum has specimens ; but this would have 

 entailed a very great increase in the bulk and cost of the 

 work, and was perhaps impracticable. There are, however, 

 other defects in the plan of the work which could easily 

 have been avoided. Thus, with a few exceptions (chiefly 

 confined to the earlier volumes of the series), there is no 

 indication of the niimber of eggs in the clutch, and whether 

 any single item in the list refers to a number of eggs 

 gathered together from various sources on a given day or 



