BRITISH ASSOCIATION : ZOOLOGICAL SECTION. 355 



is milky- white in colour, almost unspotted except at its larger end. 

 This part is spotted and blotched with rich purplish-brown inter- 

 mixed with light greyish-purple, the whole pigmentation forming a 

 broken zonular band. The egg might be compared to an enlarged 

 model of a Greenfinch's egg in which the ground-colour has lost its 

 faint greenish hue. The texture of the shell is fine and thin, but 

 sufficiently strong to allow of the contents being extruded by means of 

 the blow-pipe. The egg is less rounded at the smaller end than 

 usual, and resembles in shape an ordinary domestic fowl's egg. In 

 size it is perfectly normal, viz., length, 3-9 cm. ; breadth, 3 cm. ; the 

 average measurements given for the Kestrel's egg by Saunders being, 

 length, 4 cm. ; breadth, 3-1 cm. That is to say, my Kestrel's egg is 

 1 mm. less than the normal in length and in breadth. It seems im- 

 possible to offer an explanation for this strange case of ovulation. 

 But I may perhaps be allowed to refer to one point in connection 

 with the bird's diet just before it laid the egg. During my absence 

 from home, which lasted four days, the bird was supplied with suffi- 

 cient food for that time, but it was all given on the first day. When 

 I returned the greater part was untouched, the reason being that the 

 warm weather had affected the food sufficiently to render it adverse 

 to the bird's palate. Hence the hawk fasted for three days. On my 

 return I gave her a plentiful supply of fresh ox-spleen and liver, 

 which she gorged herself with, and this highly nutritious hearty 

 meal, coming after a fast and in a warm change of weather, may 

 have toned her to such a physiological state that her ovaries became 

 sufficiently active to induce ovulation. Such an explanation is vague 

 and theoretical, and I give it only for what it is worth. 



