Birds. 9113 
flying over the same pond: it signalized its arrival by pitching right and left into the 
sand martins located here since the 2Ist of April. Matthew Hutchinson ; 3 Woodlands 
Road, Blackheath, S.E.; April 27, 1864. 
Pigeon laying three Eggs.—I have this day observed a curious fact, or rather freak 
of Nature. I found that a pair of my fancy pigeons were sitting upon three eggs. 
That the female bird had laid all three, and at the same time, or, more correctly 
speaking, in the same nest, and for the one incubation, there can be no doubt; _firsé, 
because the pair of birds in question were in a pen or aviary apart from all other 
pigeons ; secondly, because they had only been therein a sufficient space of time to 
admit of their going to nest once; and, thirdly, because { made a note of the day on 
which the first egg was laid, as I am in the habit of doing with all my fancy birds. 
These three eggs were all perfect in form and size, and the exact counterpart of each 
other. I removed the three eggs from the nest to-day, and broke them to examine the 
contents: only one egg contained an embryo. The first egg would be laid ten days 
ago. The pair of birds were a male “ dragon” and female half-bred bird: they were 
used as “ feeders.” ~I have kept pigeons fifteen years, and never before observed an 
undoubted instance of any individual or variety producing more than two eggs ata 
time.—W. W. Boulton; Beverley, April 26, 1864. 
Late Breeding of the Ring Dove.—Last year I tuok two late nests of the ring dove, 
each containing two perfectly fresh eggs: the first of these I took on the 16th of 
September, and the second on the 30th of the same month. I have before taken their 
eggs as late as the 16th, but they were always pretty far on in the process of hatching. 
I never before got any so late as the 30th.—John A. Harvie Brown, Dunipace, 
Falkirk. 
The Red Grouse and Willow Grouse——I am glad to find that the long-pending 
suit of “ Red Grouse versus Willow Grouse” is again before the Divorce Court, and I 
trust the jury of ornithologists who try these intricate cases will not suffer it to be 
shelved again till they have come to a verdict, on sufficient evidence; and either join 
them together as one species, or separate them for ever as distinct. But I should not 
again have intruded my own opinion on the question had not my name been men- 
tioned, and my recommend@ation of a close comparison of their respective eggs been 
called in question by your last correspondent on the subject (Zovl. 9045). I am still, 
however, of opinion that a careful comparison of a sufficient series of egys of the two 
(so-called) species would not be wholly without value in helping us towards a decision. 
Unquestionably in some families the eggs of certain species bear a very cluse resem- 
blance to each other (and in such cases it would be manifestly most unsafe to rely too 
much upon the egg alone, as if it were an unfailing mark of distinction) ; but this is not 
invariably, neither is it generally, the case; and a practised oologist will, for the most 
part, name the species from a close inspection of the egg. Moreover, even in those 
cases where the eggs of allied species most nearly resemble one another, a very careful 
and painstaking scrutiny of a sufficient series of eggs will sometimes result in enabling 
us to distinguish between two species, where at first sight the task seemed hopeless, 
and the resemblance of the eggs exact: but then we must not be content with a super- 
ficial, hasty survey; the examination must be close, and deliberate, and minute, and 
that not of one or two specimens only, but of a sufficient series, 
“ Nocturna versate manu, versate diurna.” 
After such an examination I haye more than once been surprised at the result, and at 
VOL. XXII. 2K 
