84 
which is of appreciably smaller size than ordinary examples, is delicately speckled all over, with here 
and there a larger spot, and with a dull irregular blotch of brown nearly an inch in extent towards 
the larger end. The last of the series to be noticed is an extremely handsome specimen : the ground- 
colour is a pale creamy brown, with widely scattered and obscure spots of darker brown ; but the 
thicker portion of the egg presents numerous marbled veins of purplish brown, among which are fine 
pencilled markings and wavy lines of red, producing a very pleasing effect. 
The series of eggs belonging to this species in my son’s collection comprises upwards of twenty 
specimens. There is a slight variation in size and form, and also in the details of the markings. 
They vary from the true ovoid form to a decided ovoido-conical, the average size being 2 inches in length 
by 1’5 in breadth. One example differs from all the rest in being more rounded in form, measuring 
1'8 inch in length by 1‘45 in breadth. They are of a warm cream or stone colour, varied over the 
entire surface, but more particularly at the larger end, with scattered spots of reddish brown : in some 
the spots are rounded and widely scattered with minute specks between ; in others they are irregular 
and smudgy ; in others, again, they present underlying or washed-out spots similar to those in the eggs 
of Ocydromus. One has the entire surface covered with pretty evenly distributed roundish spots ; 
another has the spots more thickly aggregated at the larger end ; another exhibits them entirely 
confluent at the pole, having a smudgy appearance and ranging in tint from dull purple to chocolate- 
brown ; whilst another, difFering from all the rest, is conspicuously washed towards the larger end, 
and sparingly over the rest of the surface, with dark blots and smudges of yellowish and purplish 
brown. 
Trihonyx mortieri (see Vol. I. Intr. p. xiv, and Vol. II. p. 88). 
