EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 147 



mottled, blotched, and streaked with reddish-brown and very dark 

 blackish-brown. On some eggs the blotches are large, and chiefly 

 distributed in an oblique direction round the large end ; on others 

 they are more evenly distributed over the entire surface ; and on 

 many, a few very dark scratches, spots, or streaks are scattered 

 here and there amongst the brown markings. The underlying 

 markings are numerous and conspicuous, and are pale violet-grey 

 or greyish-brown in colour. The eggs vary in length from 1'55 

 to 1"45 inch, and in breadth from l'l to l'O inch. It is almost 

 impossible to distinguish some eggs of the Purple Sandpiper from 

 certain varieties of those of the Jack Snipe or the Common Snipe ; 

 but on an average the ground-colour of the eggs of the two latter 

 species is less olive. Eggs of the Dunlin resemble very closely 

 those of the Purple Sandpiper, but are smaller. 



THE BEOAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 

 (Tringa platyrhyncha) .)* 



Plate 40, Figs. 5, 8. 



About seven specimens of this species have been obtained in 

 Great Britain, most of them on the east coast of England. The 

 Broad-billed Sandpiper is a very local bird during the breeding- 

 season, but its range extends from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 

 The breeding-season in Scandinavia is in the latter part of May 

 and early in June. 



The nest resembles that of a Snipe, and is placed in a tuft of 

 grass. 



The eggs are four in number, bumsh-white in ground-colour, 

 thickly mottled and spotted with rich chocolate-brown, and 

 numerous underlying markings of violet-grey. Some eggs are so 

 thickly marked as to conceal most of the ground-colour ; others 

 are more sparingly marked, having most of the spots clustered on 

 the large end, where many of them are confluent, and on these 

 the underlying markings are larger than usual. They vary in 

 length from 1'38 to 1'25 inch, and in breadth from 0.95 to 0.87 

 inch. 



* Limicola platyrhyncha — Saunders, Manual, p. 563; Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 223. 



