BLACK REDS TAUT AS A BREEDING SPECIES. 419 



to discredit the supposition. Possibly the eggs were the very 

 rare white variety of the Hedge-sparrow's egg : the site would 

 be a very likely one for this species. In any case there is nothing 

 to connect them with the Black Redstart, except a statement 

 subsequently made by Hawkins to William Hewitson that *' a 

 respectable person in his neighbourhood " had seen a pair of birds 

 the male of which he described as resembling a Black Redstart, 

 nesting in a wall, and that the eggs were white (Col. Illustr. 

 Vol. 1. p. 106). 



An even more extraordinary statement was made by W. J, 

 Sterland, in his little book on the ' Birds of Sherwood Forest ' 

 (p. 67), who believed that he had found this species on three 

 occasions in Nottinghamshire nesting in hedgerows ! and who 

 took in May 1854 four white eggs, one of which afterwards was 

 passed into Professor Newton's collection. In the * Ootheca 

 Wolleyana ' I. p, 308. the professor stated his belief that these 

 eggs were really those of the Blackcap. From the position of 

 the nest it is impossible that Sterland could have had a good view 

 of the bird, and his description of the nests would pass for those 

 of the Blackcap. Of this record we may say in Seebohm's words 

 that " the position of the nest in a hedge almost amounts to 

 proof that he was mistaken in his identification." 



In 1858 Mr. G. Kirkpatrick found a nest with five white eggs 

 on a patch of waste moor at Duncow, near Dumfries. The nest 

 is said to have been like a Yellow-hammer's, but larger (See 

 'Birds of the West of Scotland,' p. 85). There seems to be no 

 reason for supposing that these eggs were anything but white 

 varieties of Yellow-hammer's eggs, and it is remarkable that on' 

 the same piece of waste ground Mr. R. Service found on June 16th^ 

 1886, a nest of the Yellow-hammer with three eggs, two of which 

 were practically pure white, while the third had only some very 

 faint speckles (see H. S. Gladstone's ' Birds of Dumfriesshire,' p. 

 14). The only noticeable difference between the descriptions of 

 the two clutches is that those found by Mr. Kirkpatrick were 

 ' shiny,' while Mr Service's eggs were without gloss. The 

 extreme improbability of the Black Redstart breedhig here is 

 emphasized by the fact that no specimen of the Black Redstart- 

 has ever been obtained in the county. 



Coming to more recent times we find in the ' Zoologist ' for 



