9454 Birds. 



same place, felt himself under the, to him, very unpleasant necessity of destroying 

 the much-honoured nest, which, when removed, in order to repair the damage done to 

 the house, proved to be more than sufEcienl to fill an ordinary-sized waggon. The 

 repairs being fully executed, the peasant then replaced, to the best of his ability, the 

 destroyed nest ; but when the occupants arrived it did not please them, and although 

 the female, after much apparent concern, as well as improvement on the part of her- 

 self and mate, laid her eggs, she could not feel at ease, and the result was that about 

 April 15lh she threw them out. The writer of these lines occupied a room which com- 

 manded a view of the above-mentioned house, and took great interest in the extra- 

 ordinary birds, and, when she saw the eggs roll down the tliatch, proceeded at once to 

 the spot, where she found one of the eggs still unbroken.'' The above curious account 

 was handed to me by the writer, who also presented me with the unbroken egg.— 

 Communicated hy J. H. Gurney, 31. P. 



Little Bittern near Weston-super-Mare. — A little bittern was flushed and killed out 

 of a withy-bed at Bleadon, a small village near Weston-super-Mare, one day about 

 the middle of last October. Its plumage agreed with the description given in Morris's 

 ' British Birds' of a bird of the year. — Murray A. Mathews ; Weston-super-Mare. 



Egg of the Moa. — A moa's e^g is now being exhibited at Messrs. Bethune and 

 Hunter's offices. It is about 10 inches long and 5 inches in diameter, of a dirty while 

 colour. It was found at the Kaikoros, in the middle island, under singular circum- 

 stances. A labourer in Mr. Fyffe's employ, who was digging the foundation for 

 a house, came upon the egg, and, unfortunately, with his pick broke some portions of 

 the shell. It] was found in the hands of a skeleton of a Maori, who was buried in 

 a silting posture, with the egg resting in his hands and held opposite to his head. 

 The egg has been placed in a box of rimu, and protected with a sheet of glass on the 

 top. In a drawer beneath, securely covered with glass, are the fragments of the shell, 

 which have been carefully preserved. The injury, as the egg is placed in the box, is 

 not perceptible, and it appears to be perfect. — Nelson Examiner. 



Egg of the Moa. — Having heard from my brother. Archdeacon Hadfield, of the 

 discovery of the moa's egg, before reading the letter in the ' Times' of the 14th inst., 

 I intended communicating the fact, but, having been anticipated, it now only remains 

 for me to make a few remarks on what has been published, after comparing it with my 

 brother's statement, for, according to that, the breadth of the recently-discovered egg 

 is at least a third greater than has been represented. The Archdeacon says : — " One 

 side was broken by the man's pickaxe, but, that part being hidden by the glass case, 

 the egg looks perfect, and is a wonderful object. I measured it as nearly as I could : 

 it is quite 10 inches long, and 6J inches in width." The Melbourne correspondent of 

 the 'Times,' quoting from the 'Nelson Examiner,' says that the egg " is about 10 

 inches in length, and 6 inches in diameter;" but this appears to be a mistake, or the 

 egg of the moa is widely difl"erent in shape from that of the ^pyornis and the ostrich. 

 An egg of the latter, procured at the Cape of Good Hope in 1837, and of which a 

 description has already appeared (Zool. 61583), is 6^^ inches in length, 5^ inches in 

 diameter, and 19 inches in circumference lengthwise, though erroneously said to be 

 16j inches in circumference lengthwise (therefore of greater size than the largest 

 ostrich's egg in Mr. Rowley's collection; see Zool. 9191). The major axis of the 

 largest egg of the iEpyornis is " 12i inches, minor axis, 9| inches, great circumference 

 34/5 inches." Though the circumference of the moa's egg is not given, owing pro- 

 bably to its beiug enclosed iu a case, and lying ou its fractured side, slill we may 



