1861.] MR. A. NEWTON ON RARE BIBDs' EGGS. 397 



palely-marked Jackdaw's egg (Corvus monedula, Linn.), but the 

 nest is said to have somewhat resembled a Jay's. The other was 

 obtained by Dr. Baldamus from Savoy, through the Abbe Caire. 

 It is rather larger than the preceding, and has the ground-colour of 

 a paler blue-green, and is not very much unlike the egg of the Alpine 

 Chough {^Pyrrhocorax alpimis, Vieill.). Herr F. W, Badeker has 

 described and figured a second specimen procured in the same quarter 

 ('Journ. f. Orn.' 185(5, p. 32, pi. l.f. 1), which more resembles my 

 Transylvanian one. Baron Richard Konig-Warthausen, in an able 

 paper lately published (' Journ. f. Orn.' 1861, pp. 33-44), has ex- 

 pressed his opinion that the eggs obtained by Dr. Baldamus from 

 Herr Bielz are Jays', and that those procured from M. Caire only 

 are entitled to the consideration of naturalists as Nutcrackers ' . The 

 eggs which my friend Mr. Tristram has described ('Ibis,' 1860, 

 pp. 169, 170) I am compelled, much against my will, to doubt. 

 One of them, which I have seen and compared with my series of the 

 eggs of the Siberian Jay (Perisoreus infaitstiis, Bp.), is not to be 

 distinguished by any character I can detect. 



The remaining two eggs I now exhibit, though sent to me as those 

 of the Nutcracker, are without doubt abnormal Jackdaws' . 



Under these circumstances I forbear from having any of my spe- 

 cimens figured, in the hope that before long I shall have the pleasure 

 of giving some more certain information on the subject. 



Pallas's Sand-Grouse. 



Syrrhaptes paradoxus (Pallas). PI. XXXIX. fig. 1. 



No egg of this species, I believe, has ever before been seen in 

 England, though I understand that Herr Radde has obtained speci- 

 mens in Eastern Siberia, which are now in St. Petersburg. The pre- 

 sent example was laid in the Society's Gardens, June 21st, 1861, by 

 one of the birds brought from China. I saw it a very iem hours 

 after it had been produced. Its colour was then very brilliant, the 

 brown spots showing warmly against the fresh sea-green ground. It 

 was placed in the incubator ; but a few days afterwards Mr. Bartlett 

 found it to be cracked, and it was purchased by me from the Society. 

 I should add that there were no birds of any other species in the 

 cage where this egg was laid. 



MacQueen's Bustard. 



Houbara macqiieeni, Bonaparte. PI. XXXIX. fig. 5. 



Without being able to express an opinion of my own on the ques- 

 tion whether the Houbaras of Africa and Asia are to be considered 

 specifically distinct, I am content to include in this list of oological 

 novelties an egg of the eastern race, which was sent to me by Mr. 

 Christian Rassam, Her Majesty's Consul at Mosul, with the infor- 

 mation that it was taken by an Arab at Tel-Yacoob, May 21st, 1860. 

 Mr. Blyth, I believe, is unequivocally of opinion that the Houbaras 

 of the Mesopotamian plains are identical with those of Scinde and 

 Affghanistan ; I therefore think that I am justified in figuring the pre- 



