MEMOIR OF THE LATE FREDERICK BOND. 421 
Pigeons and Bantams. What, it may be asked, was Mr. Bond’s 
Opinion on the subject? It was somewhat oracular. He said 
that ‘he did not know what to make of it, and had never seen 
anything like it; the pigeon-like shape and the fowl-like plumage 
would lead any one, without reflection, to believe in its asserted 
hybridity.” 
Here we must take leave of the Birds, and devote the 
remainder of this memoir to a few remarks on the beautiful 
collection of Eggs of British Birds, in the formation of which 
Mr. Bond spent the best years of his life. To this collection, 
unfortunately, access cannot now be readily gained, since it was 
disposed of some years ago to Baron Louis d’Hamonville, and 
has been removed to France. It is undoubtedly one of the 
finest collections ever formed in this country; not only 
because it was commenced so long ago that it contains the 
eges of many birds which no longer breed in the British 
Islands, or are now almost impossible to procure here, but 
also because it contains such well-selected, typical examples of 
every species, with occasional varieties, and every one of 
them carefully identified. Many and many a time have we 
revelled in an examination of the contents of that egg-cabinet, 
and admired the treasures it enclosed, the gem, of course, being 
the egg of the Great Auk, which was previously in the col- 
lection of Yarrell, and the history of which, so far as is 
known, is given in Mr. Grieve’s Monograph of that bird (page 
105). British Eagles, Ospreys, Kites, and Buzzards, each with 
a history; Honey Buzzards from the New Forest; Harriers 
and Short-eared Owls from the Fens, whence came also eggs of 
the Black-tailed Godwit, Reeve, and Redshank, Spotted Crake, 
and (if our memory serves us) of the Black Tern also; to say 
nothing of ducks of different sorts, and such marsh-loving birds 
as the Bearded Tit, Savi’s, and Great Reed Warblers, Dotterels 
from the North-country “fells,” and Kentish Plovers from the 
Sussex beach, English Crossbills and Golden Orioles, Choughs 
and Ravens, and many others dear in the eyes of a collector. 
With what pleasure would he open drawer after drawer and 
recount to a delighted listener the history of the specimens most 
prized, and the incidents of the day on which they were found. 
He could remember the time when a hatful of Water Rail’s and 
Spotted Crake’s eggs might be purchased of a “‘ fenman”’ for a 
