530 MR. DRESSER ON SOME EGGS OF LARUS MINUTUS. [Nov. 25, 
I was the first to do so. If my memory serves me, when I commu- 
nicated my ‘ wondrous’ tale’ to my old friend and early ornithological 
guide, Mr. KE. Blyth, he told me the circumstance was well known 
in India. I could, if I had time, refer to his letters still in my pos- 
session, ranging back three and twenty years, when Dr. Templeton 
and myself, aided by Mr. Blyth, began to work out the ornithology 
of Ceylon. “T am, Sir, yours faithfully, 
eK. L. Layvarp.” 
Mr. A. Murray exhibited some specimens of articles sold as food 
in the markets of Old Calabar. These consisted of examples of a 
species of Pteropus ready trussed, specimens of a rare burrowing 
Crustacean (Callianassa turnerana), and larve of a longicorn Beetle 
found in decayed palm trees. 
Mr. R. B. Sharpe exhibited a specimen of a very rare Indian King- 
fisher (Alcedo grandis of Blyth). The specimen in question had 
been recently obtained in the Darjeeling Terai by a shikaree in the 
employ of Dr. John Anderson, Curator of the Indian Museum, 
Calcutta. This gentleman had sent the specimen to England for 
Mr. Sharpe to figure in his ‘ Monograph of the Alcedinide.’ 
Mr. H. J. Elwes, F Z:S., exhibited a fine pair of horns of the 
Sinaitic Ibex (Capra sinaitica, Hempr. et Ehrenb.), obtained by 
Mr. Palmer during the Sinaitic survey of last year. 
Mr. H. E. Dresser, F.Z.S., exhibited, and made the following re- 
marks on, some eggs of the Little Gull (Larus minutus) :— 
«J have much pleasure in offering for inspection carefully iden- 
tified eggs of the Little Gull (Larus minutus), together with a skin 
of the adult bird in breeding-plumage, obtained with the eggs, they 
being a portion of a series of eggs and skins of this Gull yesterday 
received from Russia. I am the more glad to be able to exhibit 
these eggs, as I have not hitherto seen authentic eggs of Larus 
minutus in any collection. I myself have for long endeavoured to 
obtain them, but until now in vain. When in Russia two winters 
ago I made careful inquiries as to the breeding-place of this bird, 
and was assured that it bred no nearer to St. Petersburg than the 
Volga or Kama rivers, and that eggs had been procured from near 
Perm. Last year I procured through Dr. Baldamus, the well-known 
German oologist, two eggs which he assured me could be nothing 
but those of Larus minutus, and which were taken near Smyrna by 
Herr von Gonzenbach. However, I now find that they cannot be 
the eggs of the Little Gull, as they differ so very much from those 
above referred to. 
“The eges I now exhibit (five in number, viz. a clutch of three 
taken on the 3rd of June, and a clutch of two taken on the 5th of 
June, this year) were collected at the upper part of Lake Ladoga, in 
