Birds. 5123 



The Nightingale near Oundle. — I beg to state that the nightingale was heard 

 distinctly on the 25th of April last, in a coppice on the borders of Rockingham 

 Forest, not more than three miles from Oundle. I do not remember ever to have 

 heard the nightingale so early in this cold county. — W. M. H. Church ; Geddington 

 Vicarage, Kettering, May 8, 1856. * 



An Egg Prodigy. — I have latejy been presented with a double egg of the common 

 goose, so marvellous in its character and dimensions that I cannot resist the desire to 

 chronicle its wonders. The egg was laid by a goose belonging to Mr. Baylis, of 

 Pixley, near Ledbury, in Herefordshire. It weighed 1$ lb. good weight, and it 

 measures 5 inches and 3£ lines in length by 3 inches and 5 lines in breadth ; and it 

 contained within it another perfect egg, which measures 3 inches and 1\ lines in 

 length by 2 inches and 7 lines in breadth. The outer egg had been blown before it 

 was sent to me, but a sufficient portion of the contents was adherent to the shell to 

 show that it had contained a yolk. The inner egg, which I extracted through an 

 orifice made by fracture of one end of the outer egg in travelling, was in every respect 

 a perfect egg, and the broken pieces of the outer egg have been so skilfully replaced 

 by fair fingers that the outline of the egg is very little impaired. The goose that laid 

 this monster egg had her first brood last season, when her eggs were all of the usual 

 size. She opened this season by laying the egg above described, and then stopped for 

 about five weeks, when she laid six ordinary - sized eggs, on which she was 

 sitting on the 5th inst., when I last heard from my friend the Rev. James Mapleton, 

 of Torrington,near Ledbury, to whose kindness I am indebted for this great curiosity. 

 Your readers will not be surprised to learn that Mr. Baylis states that the goose 

 appeared very "mopish" for two or three days before laying the egg. To assist in 

 forming a correct conception of the strangely abnormal size of this egg, I add that 

 the size of the mute swan's egg, as given by Mr. Yarrell, is 4 inches in length by 

 2 inches and 9 lines in breadth. My eggs of the same bird, and also of the hooper, 

 are larger, i.e. about 4 inches and 6 lines by 3 inches. My fine egg of the great auk 

 measures 4 inches and 4 lines by 3 inches. The average size of the emu's egg, 

 judging from specimens in my own collection, does not exceed that of this monster 

 goose egg ; and I have ascertained by experiment that it took eleven average sized 

 eggs of the common hen to make up its weight. I have several double-yolked eggs 

 of the common goose, the largest of which measures 4 inches and 7 lines by 2 inches 

 and 8 lines; but this is the first instance that has fallen within my knowledge of one 

 perfect egg being contained within another. — /. P. Wilmot; Leamington, May 8, 

 1856. 



Note on the Late Appearance of the Common Scoter and the Scaup Duck in 

 Norfolk. — I have once or twice recorded in the 'Zoologist' the occurrence of the 

 common scoter (Oidemia nigra) unusually late in this district, in one instance even as 

 late as July : a fine adult male of this species was killed on the 2nd of May on the 

 Norwich river, about a mile and a half from the city, and therefore at a considerable 

 distance from the sea-coast; a female was observed with it, but not obtained. A pair 

 of scaup ducks were shot at Hickling Broad on the 21st of April.— H. Stevenson ; 

 Norwich, May 7, 1856. 



