Shell shock as rare egg discovered
FOR decades it sat undisturbed in a dusty drawer.
But now an egg that was part of a forgotten museum collection has turned out to be that of one of the world’s rarest birds.
Breeding habits of the Jerdon’s Courser, from southern India, are unknown and an egg has never before been found.
The specimen discovered at the University of Aberdeen’s zoology museum in 2008 was sent off to the Natural History Museum in Hertfordshire for DNA testing.
It is only now that the results have confirmed its origin.
Dr Alan Knox, the university’s emeritus head of museums, said: ‘I was looking through drawers of uncatalogued eggs when I spotted an egg labelled as belonging to this species. It was one of those eureka moments.
‘Very little is actually known about this extremely rare bird, which inhabits an area only a few kilometres wide.
‘It was seen only a few times in southern India before it was presumed extinct around 1900.
It was rediscovered in 1986 but is listed as critically endangered.’
The small collection which included the egg was put together, probably in 1917, by a vet called Ernest Meaton who worked in Bangalore. It was given to the university in the 1970s.