EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 143 



THE BLACK-TAILED GODWIT. 

 (Totanus melanurus.)* 



Plate 42, Fig. 2. 



The Black-tailed Godwit is much rarer in the British Islands 

 than the Bar-tailed Godwit. It formerly bred in small numbers 

 in the fens and marshes of the low-lying eastern counties, but 

 is now never known to do so. The geographical distribution of 

 the Black-tailed Godwit is almost an exact parallel to that of the 

 Bar-tailed Godwit, except that the former is never found in the 

 Arctic regions. 



The nest is a mere hollow in the short, coarse herbage, on the 

 dry part of the ground, somewhat deep, and lined with a handful 

 of dry grass. 



The eggs of the Black-tailed Godwit are four in number, olive- 

 brown or pale olive-green in ground-colour, indistinctly blotched 

 and spotted with darker olive-brown ; and with underlying mark- 

 ings of greyish-brown and pale inky-grey. On some eggs the 

 markings are very pale and ill-defined. They are pear-shaped, 

 and vary in length from 22 to 2'05 inches, and in breadth from 

 1-52 to 145 inch. 



THE RED-BBEASTED SNIPE. 



(Ercunetes griscus.)\ 

 Plate -41, Fig. 8. 



This species breeds throughout the Arctic regions of America, 

 from Alaska to Greenland, and has occurred accidentally in Great 

 Britain on some sixteen occasions. 



The nests which Mr. MacFarlane obtained in Arctic America 

 were taken between the 21st of June and the 1st of July, and 

 were built amongst the vegetation on the marshy borders of small 

 lakes. They were very slight — a mere depression in the mossy 

 ground, into which a few dead leaves were scraped as a lining. 



The eggs of the Bed-breasted Snipe are four in number, and 

 vary in ground-colour from pale bumsh-brown to pale greenish- 

 brown, spotted and blotched with dark reddish-brown, and with 

 well-marked pale greyish-brown underlying spots. Most of the 

 blotches and spots are on the large end of the egg, many of them 



* Limosa bclgica— Saunders, Manual, Brit. B., p. 609 (1889). Limosa. limosa— Sharpe, 



Handb., III., p. 312. 

 t Macrorhamphus griseus— Saunders, Manual, p. 501 ; Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 306. 



