170 MlbCELLAJfEA. 



and he believes it to be certainly correct, I therefore send you 

 the Qgg, hoping you will put it into your collection if you think 

 the information worthy of belief." The person referred to was 

 the keeper, and I believe was a clever man, and was much in- 

 terested in birds and eggs, and had helped to form the collection. 

 This egg agrees pretty well with Yarrell's description of what 

 the egg is said to be like. It is about the size of a Heave's egg, 

 but is rather broader and not so pyrifoiTa, the ground colour being 

 a very rich pale brown with a pinkish tinge in it, and the spots 

 are rich brown, with some inclining to lavender colour. Now 

 from the shape of the bird one might expect it to lay an egg 

 shaped like the Woodcock's egg. I admit shape goes for very 

 little, as I have Dunlins, Common Sandpipers, Curlews, and even 

 Snipes' eggs, all of which are generally very typically pyriform, 

 as broad and round as "Woodcocks', but I think I never saw a 

 pyrifoim Woodcock's egg. In the days when this collection 

 was made, and previously, collections of such like tilings were 

 more often to be found in countiy houses than they ai'e at the 

 present time,* but the opportunities of getting from home were 

 not then so numerous and consequently public collections were 

 not so easily seen, and those who had any taste for such things 

 collected for themselves, and I think generally, in consequence, 

 the collectors acquired more information than the generality of 

 those you now meet with care to possess. 



I would remark tliat it is possible tlie Golden Plover and Ring 

 Dotterel or the Dunlin mentioned, may not be those of Europe ; 

 it is very difficult to say whether the American forms of these birds 

 are the same species as the European. — diaries 3rHrray Adamson. 



Notice of Testacella UaJiotoidea, Drop., a Mollusc new to the Dis- 

 trict. — In November, 1876, when at Mr. Edmond Crawshay's, 

 Bensham Hall, the gardener brought me two Slugs, one of which 

 was found in the Vinery, and the other on tlie outside of the 

 wall. None have been found there before or since. 



• Tlicro was n collection at Unthank TInll, tlio late Mr. Dixon Dixon's, and one at 

 Little Harlo Tower, i\\cn Mr. Murray Aynslcy's seat, part of which collection was 

 given to ufl when he left the county; and tlic one nt Wallington, which contains the 

 Ureal Auk'n egg, and aho an nuthcntlc egg of the Great Bustard, taken In England, 

 and probably one of tho lait which will ever bo taken in a wild state. 



