30 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



new nest or repairs an old one. Some small white eggs with brown spots 

 bother me much. I have found three in different small birds' nests with 

 totally differently marked eggs. They must be the eggs of some parasitical 

 bird, but appear too small for any of the Cuckoos here, being only as large 

 as a Willow Wren's egg. The Pacific Heron, Ardea pacifica, and White- 

 fronted Heron, A. nova-hollandia, are not uncommon here. I find a 

 difficulty in identifying small birds, not having any plates to compare. Next 

 week, all being well, I start overland to the south, hoping to get as far as 

 Albany, and shall expect to come across many interesting forms, — amongst 

 them the Leipoa, which breeds abundantly along the coast as far as this. — 

 Thomas Carter (Gascoyne River, West Australia). 



Peculiarities in Eggs of the House Sparrow. — Some peculiarities 

 in the eggs of this bird appear to have been overlooked by orni- 

 thologists. The eggs forming a set, or clntch, are generally five; 

 occasionally six are met with, but not more than one set in ten has that 

 number — very probably not more than one set in twenty. In every set or 

 clutch containing four, five, or six eggs, one egg — occasionally two — will be 

 found of quite a different type, being, with very few exceptions of a lighter 

 coloured ground than the others, with the colouring laid on in spots and 

 blotches, instead of being diffused in specks more evenly over the whole 

 surface of the shell. An odd egg of a darker colour than the others of the 

 clutch is rarely met with, and in the ninety sets I have now before me 

 there is only one set in which the odd egg has a ground of a slightly darker 

 shade. The ninety sets of eggs to which I refer were all taken under my 

 own supervision, and all blown by myself, so that I know them to be 

 genuine sets and not made up. In every set containing four or five eggs, 

 the odd egg appears, exceptiug in one clutch of four and one clutch of five. 

 In these clutches the odd egg may have been dropped when the bird was 

 from home. I will now mention the extreme infertility of the " odd egg," 

 which I found last breeding season to be about sixty per cent. In the 

 season of 1886 I found it to be seventy-five per cent. This egg is, I believe, 

 as a rule, the fourth egg laid, for in clutches of five eggs I have found 

 an egg of the usual type laid after the odd egg has appeared. During the 

 last two breeding seasons I have had a very great number of clutches of 

 eggs and also broods under my notice, taken over a considerable area in 

 Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, and Essex, and I find the average clutch to 

 be 4£ eggs, and the average brood to be only 3£ young birds ; these figures 

 show that about 30 per cent, of the eggs are unproductive. From these 

 observations, which I have carefully made, the Sparrow is not so prolific as 

 it is generally supposed to be, and it is quite possible for the " British 

 farmer" to kill them down too close, and to his present troubles he may 

 add worse enemies thau the Sparrows to eat his crops. — Joseph P. Nunn 

 (Royston). 



