NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 265 



its favourite nesting places were soft open spots in the 

 marshes, where the ground was clothed with bog-moss 

 and sedge, and the nests were often placed on tufts of 

 grass just above the water. He describes the nest as a 

 rounded hollow, lined with a little dry grass. The sitting 

 bird was not only observed to run from the nest, but 

 to fly from it, and when the eggs were much incubated, 

 to become very tame and confiding. Nests of this 

 Sandpiper, found by Mr. Mitchell on the Dovre-fjeld, 

 were in open parts of the marshes, and more elaborately 

 made than usual, the hollow being deeper and more 

 carefully lined. He also remarked the exceedingly 

 interesting fact that the lining in each nest resembled 

 the colour of the eggs it contained, the darker varieties 

 being laid on withered leaves of the willow, the paler 

 ones on dry grass. What a pity it is other collectors 

 do not observe more of these curious facts and minor 

 details, especially with regard to the rarer birds, whose 

 nidification is so little known ! 



Range of egg colouration and measurement: 

 The eggs of the Broad-billed Sandpiper are four in 

 number. They are pyriform in shape, smooth in texture, 

 and buffish-white in ground colour, densely mottled and 

 spotted with rich chocolate-brown and paler brown, and 

 with underlying markings of gray. Various distinct 

 types occur. One has the spotting so dense and close 

 as to hide nearly all trace of the pale ground colour ; 

 another is more thinly spotted with a larger amount of 

 ground colour visible between the spots ; another has 

 most of the markings on the major half of the ^gg, many 

 of them confluent, and the pale gray underlying spots 

 on the minor half are very distinct and large. Average 

 measurement, i'3 inch in length, by "9 inch in breadth. 

 Incubation is performed by both sexes, but the duration 

 of the period is unknown. 



