VOL. VII.] ERYTHRISM IN EGGS. 255 



eggs is decidedly less than in an equally large series of 

 Continental specimens. British "red" eggs are, as a rule, 

 rather dull in colour, but occasionally bright -coloured eggs 

 occur, chiefly in the southern counties. Mr. Staines 

 Boorman possesses a fine red Cuckoo's egg taken with 

 four Robin's near Woking in 1903. Mr. H. Massey has 

 no iewev than ten red eggs with various fosterers {antea. 

 VI., p. 122), and some of the red tjrpes have been figured 

 by Dresser (Eggs of Birds Eur.), Seebohm [Col. Figs., 

 pi. 49), Frohawk [Brit. Birds, pi. viii.), Jourdain (Eggs of 

 Eur. Birds, pi. 39, 40).* 



Kentish Plover {Charadrius a. alexandrinus). — The 

 Hungarian National Museum at Budapest contains a 

 wonderful red clutch of three eggs taken locally by Cerva 

 (F.C.R.J.). 



Golden Plover {Ch. a'pricnrius). — Some eggs are very 

 warm in colouring and show no trace whatever of blue or 

 greenish in the ground. 



Lapwing [VaneUus vanellus). — ^Mr. E. Bidwell's collection 

 contained several examples of red eggs of this bird. Lot 76 

 (Sale : June 23, 1903) consisted of four eggs from Pitsea, 

 Essex, Avith dark red ground, taken by R. Fitch, and a 

 set of three from the same locality formed lot 124 at the 

 same sale. Lot 70 was a single egg with purple-red spots 

 on a white ground. Mr. J. M. Goodall has a wonderful 

 series of these red eggs, some of which are very brilUant, 

 from Leadenhall Market and other sources. Mr. G. Swann 

 possesses a single egg, found by a boy gathering Plover's 

 eggs near Dumfries (1913), which is white with a few rust- 

 red markings. 



Common Sandpiper {Tringa hypoleuca). — ^The only 

 erythristic set of this species which we have seen is in the 

 possession of Mr. F. Coburn, and was taken in North Wales 

 (F.C.R.J.). 



Wood-Sandpiper [T. glareola). — ^Kricheldorff states that 

 he received an erythristic clutch from Lapland in 1902 

 {Zeitschr.f. OoL, XIII., p. 11). 



Green Sandpiper {T. ocrophus). — ^The late Mr. A. W. 

 Johnson possessed a beautiful erythristic set of this bird, 

 and single eggs with pinkish ground occasionally occur. 



* It is a remarkable fact that in an Indian race of the Cuckoo 

 (C c. bakeri) the red type has become normal, and practically all 

 its eggs are creamy-white or reddish in ground-colour, with fine red- 

 brown spots, generally in the form of a zone. 



