148 EGGS OF BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE PECTOKAL SANDPIPER 



(Trin cja pectoralis.)* 

 Plate 43, Fig. 12. 



This species has occurred so often in the British Islands that it 

 may fairly be regarded as an irregular migrant on autumn 

 migration. It is confined to Arctic America during the breeding- 

 season, and wanders in autumn through the United States to 

 Central America, and even to the extreme north of the South 

 American continent. 



The nest is built in the grass, and placed in some high and dry 

 situation. 



The eggs are very handsome, and closely resemble in colour 

 those of the American Stint, though they are more than twice 

 the size. The ground-colour varies from pale buff to pale olive- 

 brown ; the surface-spots are very large and irregular in shape, 

 and generally of the richest reddish-brown. Where the surface- 

 spots are not so crowded as to become confluent and to hide the 

 ground-colour, the grey underlying spots are very conspicuous. 

 An egg belonging to the Smithsonian Institution, kindly lent me 

 to be figured, measures 1'55 inch in length, and 1/05 inch in 

 breadth. 



THE LITTLE STINT. 

 (Tringa minuta.)\ 



Plate 44, Figs. 1, 3. 



This interesting and charming little Sandpiper is only known 

 as a visitor on migration to the British Isles. It breeds in great 

 numbers, though very locally, on the Siberian tundra, from 

 Kolguev Island and the North Cape, eastwards to the Taimur 

 Peninsula. This was one of the species whose eggs Mr. Harvie- 

 Brown and I were in search of when we went to the Petchora 

 Valley, and there we found it nesting in July. 



The nest was like that of other Sandpipers, a mere depression in 

 the ground, with such dead cloudberry-leaves and other dry material 

 as was within easy reach to scrape together to serve as lining. 



The eggs vary in ground-colour from pale greenish-grey to 

 pale brown, spotted and blotched with rich brown, and with under- 



* Hetcropygia maculata (Vieill.) — Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 247. 

 f Limonites miiiuta— Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 250. 



