EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 145 



local bird during the breeding season, and is confined to the 

 northern counties and a few places on the moors of Cornwall and 

 Devonshire. It is a circumpolar bird, breeding throughout the 

 Arctic regions of both continents— in Asia up to lat. 74°, but in 

 America probably not so far north. The American form is often 

 considered to be distinct from the European one. 



The nest itself is a mere depression, with occasionally a slender 

 twig or two round the margin, and lined with a little dead grass, 

 a few roots, or sometimes a little moss. 



The eggs, which are always four in number, are subject to great 

 variation in colour, and are sometimes remarkably handsome. 

 They are larger than the eggs of the Little Stint or American 

 Stint, and smaller than those of the Purple Sandpiper and 

 Common Snipe ; but there are no variations of colour or spot- 

 ting to be found in the eggs of these four species which are not 

 occasionally found in eggs of the Dunlin. The ground-colour 

 varies from pale green to pale brown and buff ; the underlying 

 spots are few, obscure and grey, but the surface-spots vary from 

 rich reddish-brown to nearly black ; they are sometimes, chiefly 

 at the large end, bold, and many of them confluent, but occasion- 

 ally small and evenly distributed over the surface. On some 

 eggs the blotches are oblique, resembling a common variety of 

 the eggs of the Turnstone. They vary in length from 14 to 

 12 inch, and in breadth from 1*0 to 0"9 inch. 



BONAPAKTE'S SANDPIPEE. 



{T ring a bonapartii.)* 



Plate 43, Fig. 8. 



Bonaparte's Sandpiper is another of those American species 

 that occasionally wanders across the Atlantic to the British 

 Islands. Upwards of a dozen examples of this bird have been 

 obtained, principally in October and November. It breeds in the 

 Arctic regions of North-east America and Greenland, but it has 

 not occurred west of the Eocky Mountains. 



The nest is described as a mere depression in the ground, in 

 which a few dead leaves are collected to serve as a lining. 



* Tringa fuscicoUis (V.)— Saunders, Manual, p. 567. Heteropygia fmcicollis (V.)— 

 Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 242. 

 K 



