266 Mr. Stumonvs’s Observations 
Six females and two males were dissected. From the small 
size of the ovaria, the thickness and length of the oviduct of the 
female, and large flaccid testes of the male, it was concluded 
that the eggs had not been long laid, and that the males were 
not young ones, as their less bright prinage at first gave reason 
to suspect. i 
From the deficiency of feathers on the belly of the male, from 
the duller plumage, from the very few that appeared, and from 
the difficulty which these required to be driven from those tufts 
where the nests perhaps were, Would it be absurd to suppose 
that the males alone perform the business of incubation ? 
These birds were found at the edge of two or three fresh-water 
lakes in Sanda and North Ronee Ss the two most northern 
= the Orkney islands. 
Inthe stomachs of several were found the remains of mono- 
culi and onisci. As none of the inhabitants had observed them 
before, they had no provincial name, nor was it possible to 
7 . ascertain whether. they frequented any of the other islands. 
It is much more to be regretted that the search after their nests 
was not attended with the desired success. fec 
If upon more accurate inquiry this should prove to be a 
new species, perhaps there would be no objection to the name 
Williamsii, as it is to the liberality of Mr. J. Williams, of Dartford, 
that I am indebted for the discovery. > 
TRINGA ALPINA, 
Padi on athe islands of South Ronaldsha and Sanda, and at 
Loch Strathbeg, near Frazerburgh, Aberdeenshire. = — — 
Nest, with Charadrius hiaticula and Tringa vanellus, composed 
of dried tufts of Juncus squarrosus deposited in a slight hole in 
the aes Eggs tap ees e irregularly marked with 
ESL | ix light 
be 
