256 BRITISH BIRDS. [vol. vii. 



Redshank {T. totanus). — Individual eggs have a distinct 

 tendency towards erythrism. Mr. G. K. Baynes has a 

 clutch (Norfolk) in which one egg is very red, while the 

 others are practically normal. Mr. T. P. Aldworth has a 

 fine set with a creamy ground and light red spots from the 

 Orkneys. There was a clutch of three dark red eggs from 

 Stanford-le-Hope in the Bidwell collection, which passed 

 into Major Proctor's possession, and Avas sold, together 

 with a set of reddish eggs from Valkenswaard, Nov. 21, 

 1912. Mr. F. Coburn has also a fine red set from Wareham. 



Greenshank {T. nebularia). — Some very richly marked 

 eggs are distinctly erythristic in character. 



Snipe {Gallinago g. gallinago). — Major F. W. Proctor's 

 collection included a set from Harray, Orkneys, which is 

 . described as the red variety (sold, Nov. 21, 1912). 



Common Tern [Sterna hirundo). — ^For many years past 

 a few sets of red eggs have been obtained at one British 

 locality, but as far as we are aware nowhere else. Some 

 of these eggs have very brilliant blood-red markings on 

 red ground, while others, which are probably second laymgs, 

 are of a more rusty-red colour. A set of each phase was 

 exhibited by Clifford Borrer at the British Ornithologists' 

 Club, June 11, 1913 {Bull. B.O.C., XXXI., p. 112). Other 

 clutches exist in the collections of Mr. P. F. Bunyard, the 

 Rev. J. R. Hale, and Major Stirling. 



Arctic Tern [8. paradiscea). — ^Mr. A. Chapman mentions 

 having found a clutch of two red eggs in Norway, laid on 

 red moss {Wild Norway, p. 299), and Mr. Bidwell informs 

 us that he formerly possessed a pair of red eggs from 

 Iceland. The Reykjavik Museum contains a single bright 

 red specimen from the coast of Iceland (F. C. R. Jourdain, 

 antea, VI., p. 243). 



Black-headed Gull {Larus ridibundus). — ^A clutch of 

 three red eggs was taken on Loch Rogart on May 11th, 

 1882. One of these eggs passed into the Bidwell collection, 

 and formed lot 69 of the sale on June 23, 1903 ; the other 

 two are now in the Dunrobin Museum, and are figured in 

 Harvie-Brown and Buckley's Vert. Fauna of Sutherland, 

 etc. Dr. Ottosson had also erythristic eggs of this species 

 in his collection, and Herr G. Krause states that five eggs, 

 ranging in colour from pale red to red-brown with dark 

 red or red-brown markings, have been taken on the Kunitzen 

 See in Germany {Orn. Monatsher., 1904, p. 123). 



Herring-G-ull {L. a. argentatus). — It has long been known 

 that red eggs of one or more of the larger gulls occurred 



Mi 



