irOTES AND QUERIES. 



23 



eggs, but the man brought some specimens 

 to show me the different shades in the 

 colour, and he further assured me the eggs 

 were genuine. I thought that, after such 

 apparently conclusive evidence I was justi- 

 fied in sending to the Naturalist a notice 

 of so rare an occurrence, but after a con- 

 versation with a gentleman a little while 

 after, whom I knew to well versed in 

 British Ornithology, I must confess I was 

 somewhat doubtful as to the genuine cha- 

 racter of my purchases. I was much 

 surprised to hear that at the last meeting 

 of the Zoological Society, my statement 

 had been discussed and warmly criticised 

 by some Naturalists in the room. I 

 happened to have been prevented from 

 attending the meeting, and received this 

 information from a friend. Up to this 

 time I had not received my copy of the 

 Naturalist, and so had not known of the 

 insertion of my unfortunate contribution. 

 I immediately went to the man of whom I 

 had bought the eggs, and on pressing the 

 question of the breeding of C. americanus 

 in this country, he told me that I had 

 made a mistake ; that he had never told 

 me this was collected in Norfolk, and that 

 all he said was that the egg was a genuine 

 one, but he believed it came from North 

 America. As to the other eggs, he says, 

 they were all collected in Norfolk, but I 

 am sorry I cannot give, as Mr. Reek's sug- 

 gests, any clue as to the locality where 

 they were obtained. The dealer, however, 

 promises to ask the collector, if he is not 

 already gone abroad, for some information 

 respecting these eggs, and I can assure Mr. 

 Eeeks and Oologists generally, that I shall 

 spare no pains to find out about them. In 

 the Norfolk collection there was another 

 specimen of the egg of A. minuta, and 

 one (if not two) of Oriolus galhula, I think 

 there is no doubt of these two being genuine. 

 A. minuta was shot a month or two back, 

 by a member of the Wycombe Natural 

 History Society, and was exhibited at a 

 recent meeting. I myself saw one only 



last week, in a birdstuffer's shop, that had 

 been received in the flesh, and was there 

 newly mounted^ so I think the bird is not 

 so very uncommon. As to 0. galbula, I 

 have recently seen birds and eggs said to 

 have been taken in England, and as "W. 

 R. Tate has twice observed the bird {NatU' 

 ralist vol. ii., page 118), I think this biid 

 may be even commoner than has been gene- 

 rally supposed. Mr. Briggs, of Cookham, 

 has also seen this bird in a thicket near 

 Billing Bay. That such a mistake should 

 have arisen I much regret, but I trust 

 the explanation given will prove sufficient 

 to satisfy all that when I wrote the notice, 

 I had no doubt in my own mind that the 

 egg of C. americanus, was really taken in 

 Britain. I may further state that in 

 Gould's Birc^s of Europe, he says that in 

 Temminck's opinion, the specimens of 

 the yellow-billed cuckooo, killed in 

 Europe did not come from America, but 

 from the North of Europe, where he sup- 

 poses the bird will yet be found. And 

 further in a collection of eggs sold the 

 other day at Stevens' obtained by the late 

 Mr. H. "Wheelwright, in Lapland and 

 Sweden, was sold the egg of the American 

 cuckoo. Are we to believe that this was 

 obtained from America ? Acting on Mr. 

 Temminck's supposition, I did not deem 

 it so impiobable that it might have been 

 found breeding in England. — R.B.Sharpe. 



I have lately received in the flesh, a fine 

 specimen of the Larus glaucus, or Glaucous 

 Gull, from Lincolnshre. — W. Rich. 



Mrs. L. M. Pratten". — Your fungus is 

 pronounced by the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, 

 (to whom it was sent for identification) to 

 be Lycogala epidendrum, L. It belongs 

 to the sub-order Gasteromycetes, tribe 

 Trichospermi, div. Myxogastres, and is 

 not uncommon on rotten stumps, palings, 

 &c., in Spring and Autumn. - 0. P. H. 



