13b The Ottawa Naturalist. [October 



The genuine eggs ot" the solitary sandpiper are entirely difforent 

 from spotted sandpiper eggs, in fact there is no American sand- 

 piper egg that has the slightest resemblance to that of the solitary 

 sandpiper. They bear a family likeness to eggs of the European 

 green and wood sandpipers as might be expected, but of course like 

 the birds themselves, the eggs are smaller than those two species 

 of European sandpiper. 



Now for my records which are absolutely authentic and 

 thoroughly conclusive and establish once for all the fact that the 

 solitary sandpiper does not lay its eggs on the ground, but deposits 

 them in the nests ot other birds often at considerable distance from 

 the ground. 



In the spring of 1903, I engaged Mr. Evan Thomson, to 

 collect birds eggs for me in northern Alberta, and when the sea- 

 son was over he sent me notes on the specimens he had collected, 

 amongst which was a record of finding a clutch of sandpiper eggs 

 in an old American robin's nest built in a tree top. 



I felt sure these would turn out to be eggi^ of the solitary 

 sandpiper, and in due time the eggs were sent down and I saw at 

 a glance, the eggs were new to me, but as they very much 

 resembled a set of green sandpiper eggs in my collection, except 

 being smaller in size, I was sure I had at last secured a genuine 

 clutch of solitary sandpiper eggs. Several ornithologists who 

 called to see, my collection ot birds eggs confirmed my opinion that 

 this was a genuine set of this species. Amongst those who saw 

 them, I may name the Rev. C. J. Young, Madoc, Ont. ; Mr. Ed. 

 Arnold, Battle Creek, Mich.; and Mr. Ed. Reinecke of Buffalo, 

 N. Y. ; but I thought I would wait for another year in the hope thai 

 Mr. Thompson would find another clutch and secure the bird, and 

 in this he was very successful ; as the following letter shows : — 



"This season on June 9th, 1 found another set of solitary 

 sandpiper eggs, this time in a grackle's nest in a low tree. I blew 

 the eggs and left them until the next day, intending to return with 

 my gun and shoot the bird, but on again visiting the nest, I found 

 the eggs had gone, evidently the bird had removed them as I saw 

 no trace of egg shells around. However, on the 20th June, I was 

 still more fortunate, as I found another clutch and shot the parent 

 bird as she flew from the nest and secured the four fresh eggs 



