27 [Vol. xxvii, 



Mr. Ogilvie-Grant said that he was unable to state in 

 what proportion pure white- breasted young Cormorants were 

 to be met with^ but they were very common. The amount 

 of white on the breast, as already remarked above, varied in 

 different individuals and was in no way dependent on locality. 



There was no reason for supposing that Mr. Frohawk^s 

 bird was in any way different from dozens of white-breasted 

 young Cormorants which he had examined, most of which 

 were to be seen in the collection at the Natural History 

 Museum. The fact of its having possessed a blue-green eye 

 had already been accounted for, as it was well known that with 

 the assumption of the second plumage the colour of the iris 

 changed from bluish-grey or brownish-grey to green. As 

 regarded the age of the white-breasted birds, it was perfectly 

 certain that they were all birds in their first year, in spite of 

 their size and weight. An examination of their somewhat 

 pointed scapulars, secondaries, and greater secondary-coverts^ 

 narrowly margined with brownish-buff, removed all doiibt 

 on that point, and, bearing that in mind, there could be no 

 difiBculty in assigning the approximate age of each individual. 



The Eev. F. C. R. Jourdain exhibited a small series of 

 clutches of the closely- allied species Certhia familiaris, Linn., 

 and C. brachydactyla, Brehm. The eggs of the former had 

 been taken in the British Isles, where only C. familiaris was 

 found, while those of the latter were taken in Friesland and 

 S. Spain, where only C. brachydactyla bred. The difference 

 between the eggs of the two species was very noticeable, those 

 of C. brachydactyla being much more heavily marked and 

 resembling the eggs of Parus cristatus in general appearance. 



Mr. Jourdain also exhibited some eggs from Cyprus which 

 had been sent to him for examination by Mr. J. A. Bucknill. 

 Among them were eggs undoubtedly those of Coccystes 

 glandarius (Linn.), which had been taken from nests of Pica 

 pica (Linn.) (but not of Corvus comix pallescens, Madarasz), 

 thus confirming Schrader's observations that the Magpie was 

 the usual host of this Cuckoo in Cyprus. 



