Birds, 7189 



state of exhaustion, left iLe ship, to my astonishment, after a rest of an hour or so only, 

 aud proceeded on tlieir journey, flying but a few feet apparently from the surface of the 

 water. The weather at this time was beautifully fine. At Malta, a few days after, a 

 friend who had been at sea about the same time informed me that a flight of the small 

 passerine owl had alighted on board his ship ; and in the market I observed quantities 

 uf these owls, as well as bee-birds, and a number of common cuckoos, which, it ajipeared, 

 had been caught at night in the quail-nets. How such a bird as a titlark can perform 

 at a stretch such a journey as a sea voyage of 480 miles is one of the facts far beyond 

 our comprehension, but that they do so my statement is surely sufBcient ocular demon- 

 stration o^.—From the ' Field' of September 8, 1860. 



Suggestions for forming Collections of Birds' Eggs. By Alfred 

 Newton, Esq., M.A., F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c.* 



1. General Remarks. 

 The collecting of bird's eggs for scientific purposes requires far 

 more discrimination than the collecting of specimens in almost any 

 other branch of Natural History. While the botanist, and generally 

 speaking the zoologist, at home, is satisfied as long as he receives the 

 specimens in good condition, with labels attached giving a few con- 

 cise particulars of when and where they were obtained, it should be 

 always borne in mind that to the oologist such facts, and even the 

 specimens themselves, are of very slight value unless accompanied by 

 a statement of other circumstances which will carry conviction that 

 the species to which the eggs belong has been accurately identified, 

 and the specimens subsequently carefully authenticated. Consequently 

 precision in the identification of his specimens should be the principal 

 object of an egg-collector, to attain which all others must give way. 

 There are perhaps few districts in the world, and certainly no regions 

 of any extent, whose faunas are so well known that the most rigid 

 identification may be dispensed with. Next to identifying his speci- 

 mens, the most important duty of an egg-collector is to authenticate 

 them by marking them in some manner and on some regular system 

 as will leave no doubt, as long as they exist, of their having been 

 obtained by him, and of the degree of identification to which they 

 were subjected. Neatness in the mode of emptying the shells of their 

 contents and other similar matters are much to be commended ; they 

 render the specimens more fitted for the cabinet. But the main 

 points to be attended to, as being those by which science can alone 

 be benefited, are identification and authentication. 



* Reprinted, with additions, from the Circular of the Smithsonian Institution of 

 Washington. 



