130 BULLETIN: MUSEUM OF COMPARATIVE ZOOLOGY. 
exact spot where the eggs were dug up, in company with the man who 
found them, and thns satisfied himself of the authenticity of the dis- 
covery. The fragments of the second specimen were unfortunately not 
preserved, and as Mr. Sprague was in donbt whether the perfect one 
was indeed an egg or perhaps only a geode, he cut a hole about 1.5 em. 
in diameter at one end, to ascertain if there were crystals on the inside. 
But on reflecting light into the interior, the walls were seen to present 
the same general appearance as the external surface, and a loose calca- 
reous mass, partly in the form of powder and partly flakes that appear 
to have become scaled off from the inner surface, was found within the 
cavity. This mass is still preserved in the same condition as when 
found, and weighs 18.1 grams. Possibly it represents in part the 
calcified shell membranes, such as have been found fossilized in certain 
moa eggs. Examined with a pocket lens, the flakes present no appear- 
ance of having an organized structure. 
Before proceeding to a description of the egg, it may be of interest 
to note some of the topographical features of the region as depicted by 
Mr. Roberts in the following sketch, which he was kind enough to draw 
up at the writer’s request : — 
“The city of Kalgan numbers about 100,000 inhabitants, and lies 140 miles 
northwest of Peking, China. Having lived there ever since 1880, I am famil- 
iar with the city, and all the surrounding section of country. The village of 
Yao Kuan Chuang I have frequently visited on my preaching tours to Yii 
Chou and Hsi Ning. The Hsi Ning (Western Repose) valley extends from 
W.S. W. to E. N. E., being from seven to ten miles wide near its eastern end, 
but at a distance of more than thirty miles from that end it begins to widen 
gradually toward the west. Yao Kuan Chuang is situated about twenty miles 
from the eastern end, and two miles from the mountains on the north, 
Through the valley, from west to east, flows the Sang Kan (Mulberry Dry), 
which is the largest river in the region northwest of Peking. It has no bridges, 
except in winter, but is fordable in certain places. The Hu Liu (Pot Flow) 
River, flowing northeast past Yii Chou and then north, joins the Sang Kan at a 
point three miles east of Yao Kuan Chuang. The Hsi Ning valley, except at 
its western end and where the Hu Liu River comes in, is walled with moun- 
tains several hundreds of feet above the river. The elevation above sea level, 
at the junction of the Sang Kan and Hu Liu, is shown by the barometer to be 
about 2740 feet. The mountains present the appearance of bare rock, gullied 
out in former times by glacial ice, and so steep that grass cannot grow on the 
larger part of their surface. The rocks are stratified, tilted up at a high angle, 
and contain a large amount of mica. In one place sheets of mica are taken out 
for commercial purposes, to be made into window panes. 
“There are extensive formations of loess in the Yti Chou and Hsi Ning 
