458 
ALCADAL 
The weight of the bird itself is about twenty-four 
ounces; that of its egg three ounces and seven drachms.* 
The weight of the large egg I have just mentioned 
is five ounces, seven drachms, and forty grains. 
The weight of the common crow is about nineteen 
ounces; that of its egg is only fi ve drachms and forty- 
nine grains. 
The weight of the ring-dove is twenty ounces; that 
of its egg five drachms and thirty grains. 
No eggs can vie with those of the Guillemot in variety 
and richness of colouring • those of the blue and white 
ground-colour are of about equal occurrence. I have 
figured three of the most remarkable in the collection of 
Mr. Bond ; some varieties are perfectly white. 
Those who would wish to persuade themselves that 
the ringed guillemot is a separate species, tell you, as a 
confirmation of their opinion, that it lays a white egg. 
There is no doubt that spotless varieties may be se¬ 
lected from the many thousand eggs of the Common 
Guillemot which are annually taken at Flamborough 
Head, and other breeding-places; but it is not fair to 
pass off these as peculiarly the property of the ringed 
guillemot. 
It is most unfortunately the aim of bird-fanciers and 
collectors of eggs—with the ready aid of the dealer— 
to magnify any variety, however trivial, into a genus, 
or a species, and to welcome any bird, however vague 
the authority, as a British bird. 
Mr. Wolley,—who has just returned from a two year’s 
ramble in Finmark, and will, I hope, give greater pub- 
* The above weights are not the correct weights of the fresh eggs, hut 
merely of the shell filled with water; they answer the same purpose for 
comparison. 
