c 2 The Ottawa Naturalist. |June 



NOTES ON THE EGGS OF THE SOLITARY SANDPIPER. 



The solitary sandpiper (Heledromus solitarius) is a fairly com- 

 mon Albertan bird not seen much in summer, but abundant during 

 the fall migration. They appear from their retired haunts during 

 the first week in August, when they are found in ones or twos at 

 almost every wet place of any size; that is, in the western parts of 

 the prairie. The variety found is "Cinnamon." The only record 

 I have of the eastern variety is, curious to relate, the ones from 

 which eggs were obtained, at the same time it held the record of 

 being the furthest western point where I have seen the birds, it 

 being some seven or eight miles into the timber (Range 5). We 

 departed to Fallen Timber Creek in quest of fish as also bush 

 butterflies, chiefly Erebia disa and Chionobas Macounu, camping on 

 Fallen Timber Creek. The next day my friend, Mr. Broughton, 

 enquired where to find certain Graptae, and decided to go down 

 stream about a mile. Returning to camp for dinner he told 

 me of having found a nest in a small spruce tree ; the bird he be- 

 lieved to be a sandpiper. After dinner we both took the gun and 

 returned to the nest. The bird sat very close, in fact did not fly 

 until I put out my hand to catch her. She flew some twenty-five 

 yards, but was shot. The nest contained three eggs and was un- 

 doubtedly an old one of a Bohemian waxwing, bent down on one 

 side, in a spruce tree about 12 feet high ; nest about 4^ feet off 

 ground. Location, a horseshoe slough, watered by springs flow- 

 ing out very slowly into the river. Nest tree, 10 feet from the 

 mouth of river. North and south side spruce; northeast, poplar; 

 east, willows. Two days later a set of Bohemian waxwing's 

 eggs were taken in the same spruce. 



The eggs, size 1^ x 1 inch, are pale green ground color, 

 sparingly spotted with lilac, bat heavier with brown inshiJes, 

 and are of the usual pointed type. The spots all over, though 

 chiefly at the larger end Data, 5, vi. 06. One-third fa'rly hard 

 set. 2 obtained Fallen Timber Creek, Alta. 



Note. The male obtained another mate and I think bred 

 again at that slough, anyway stayed there all summer. 



Didsbury, Alta. 1$W*>4/ y P. Garrett. 



