208 METHODS OF WORK 



shape, and in colour of ground and of markings, and in 

 the forms of these naarkings I can equal it in unquestion- 

 able Magpie's, and this from by no means a large series. 

 Had I a good series, say 500 specimens, I might possibly 

 find its exact double. Not that this is saying much. 

 But I would teU you how your argument difEers from 

 that of Wolley's in regard to the Smew's eggs. He did 

 not rest satisfied with the story of the people concerned, 

 or even with the appearance of a stuffed Smew's skin 

 with " hatching spots " under her wings, the only Smew 

 he had ever seen in Lapland, or with the eggs before him 

 corresponding with what he had previously ascertained 

 from a really trustworthy and tried man to be their true 

 appearance. With all this, and even with the general 

 dissimilarity between the supposed " Unilo's " eggs and 

 the ordinary form of Wigeon's, he was not satisfied ; not 

 until he had discovered a minute but constant difEerence 

 which held on one side with his three Unilo's eggs and 

 on the other with his three hundred Wigeon's, did he 

 allow himself to beUeve that he really possessed 

 genuine Smew's eggs. It was this one point of evidence 

 of a positive nature, and about which there could be no 

 mistake even with closed eyes, supervening on all the 

 presumptive testimony which makes the case of the 

 Smew one so excellently proved. 



Now I really think in the case of your Nutcracker's 

 it is by no means a statement unfavourable to your view, 

 to say that as far as our knowledge goes there is nothing 

 in the appearance of the egg to afford any evidence 

 against the Nucifragine theory ; but I do believe that 

 the fairest statement would be to put it that there is no 

 perceptible character in the eggwhich is not also possessed 

 by many Magpie's.* 



For many years I have been trying to impress upon 

 people the necessity of identifying the eggs they take at 

 the only time and under almost the only conditions which 

 render identification certain. If they will not do this 



• Letter to H. B. Tristram, AprD 25, 1860, 



