1861.] MR. A. NEWTON ON RARE BIRDs' EGGS. 399 



(' Eggs B. B.' 2nd ed. pi. 75. f. 1) a supposed egg of this species, 

 but most wisely, as I think, omitted it from his latest volume. 

 Whether the original of his drawing was that of the large American 

 Egret {E. leiice, Bp.) or of the Indian allied species E. nigriro- 

 stris. Gray) I cannot say ; but I feel very sure it was not that of 

 the European bird. I believe the present specimen to be in all re- 

 spects the most satisfactory of any that I have the pleasure to bring 

 before the Society this evening. It was given to me by my excellent 

 friend Dr. Baldamus, having been taken by himself in Hungary some 

 fourteen years ago ; and he assures me that during that time it never 

 left his possession until it passed into mine. 



The late Baron von Lobenstein seems to have been the first dis- 

 coverer of the nidification of this beautiful Heron, in 1840 ; and in 

 1847 Dr. Baldamus found another breeding-place, like the former, in 

 Hungary. From the accounts published (' Naumannia,' 18.51, iii. 

 p. 18, and iv. p. 41), the nests on both occasions were placed in 

 beds of gigantic reeds, and were very difficult of access. A large 

 colony of Purple Herons (^Ardea purpurea, Linn.) were also breed- 

 ing in company ; but the great difference in the size of the eggs of 

 the two species renders it almost impossible that any mistake should 

 have been made by the captors. Dr. Baldamus only obtained a dozen 

 specimens of Egretta alba, of which I think he has but a single one 

 remaining in his cabinet, so great has been his liberality towards his 

 fellow-collectors. The egg I now show is much larger than that of 

 any other European species of Heron, — so much so, that some of my 

 friends have suggested, in ignorance of the circumstances of the 

 case, that it may have been a double-yelked monstrosity. But I 

 think this objection will vanish when the length of the legs in the 

 Great White Heron is taken into consideration *, coupled with the 

 memorandum of Dr. Baldamus, from which I translate the follow- 

 ing :— 



" The eggs of Ardea alba were found on the 23rd June, 1847, in 

 a great marsh on the ' White Morass,' adjoining the Ecska, near 

 Nagy-Becskerek, in the Royal Banat (South Hungary). In all 

 there were twelve specimens, the whole ready to hatch. The young 

 had white down. The very large nests stand on the luxuriant stems 

 of a forest of reeds, which are about 1 2 feet high, and some hundred 

 yards from the margin. Altogether there were eleven or twelve 

 pairs breeding, and pretty near to one another. Most of the nests 

 contained small young, clothed in white down." 



* The best and most detailed description of this bird with which I am ac- 

 quainted is that of MacGillivray (' Hist. B. B.' iv. pp. 460 et seq.), though he is 

 certainly wrong in considering his British specimen, which he there calls Egretta 

 nigrirostris, as distinct from the Continental E. alha. He gives (p. 469) the fol- 

 lowing dimensions : — Bare part of tibia 5 inches 6 lines, tarsus 7 inches 9 lines, 

 third toe 4 inches 6 lines ; while in the Common Heron {Ardea cinerea, Linn.) 

 the same parts measure respectively 2 inches 6 lines, 6 inches 1 line, 3 inches 

 6 lines (p. 443). In a former work this laborious ornithologist had denomi- 

 nated the same specimen Erodius vicloriee (' Man. B. Orn.' ii. p. 131). 



