NON-INDIGENOUS BRITISH BIRDS. 269 



were covered with green moss, and smaller patches of 

 reindeer-moss, the whole almost hidden with a thick 

 growth of cloud-berry and carices, dwarf shrubs, and 

 sundry Arctic flowers. Some of the nests were found 

 on more sandy ground full of small pools, and covered 

 with short grass and plants. The nest of the Little 

 Stint, which Mr. Seebohm brought home, and which I 

 have examined, was merely a slight hollow lined with a 

 few dead leaves of the cloud-berry and other scraps of 

 vegetable refuse. The female alone appears to frequent 

 the nest, and when this is approached she makes little 

 dem.onstration, and is remarkably quiet. Her tameness 

 is often most extraordinary. At one nest she ap- 

 proached within eighteen inches, and when a hand was 

 stretched towards her she quietly retreated a few feet ; 

 but the moment the nest was left she commenced to 

 flutter along the ground as if wounded. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Little Stint are four in number. They 

 are pyriform in shape, smooth in texture, and vary in 

 ground colour from pale greenish-gray to pale brown, 

 spotted and blotched with rich reddish-brown, and with 

 underlying markings of paler brown and gray. Occa- 

 sionally a few dark streaks occur on the larger end of 

 the ^gg. As usual, most of the larger blotches are on 

 the major half of the ^g^, and more or less confluent. 

 Average measurement, ri inch in length, by '8 inch in 

 breadth. Incubation is apparently performed by the 

 female only, but the duration of the period is unknown. 



Diagnostic characters : The eggs of the Little 

 Stint require careful identification in all localities east 

 of the Urals, owing to the presence of allied species or 

 races in Siberia, whose breeding areas are by no means 

 clearly known. From European localities they are 

 readily distinguished by their size and colour from 



