EGGS OF BKITISH BIRDS. 151 



The eggs of the Sanderling are four in number, bumsh-olive in 

 ground-colour, thickly mottled and spotted with pale olive-brown, 

 and with a few indistinct underlying markings of violet-grey. 

 The eggs obtained by Mr. MacFarlane, as well as the one in my 

 own collection from Iceland, have most of the markings on the 

 large end ; but those obtained by Colonel Feilden have them 

 more uniformly dispersed over the entire surface. They vary in 

 length from 144 to 1"35 inch, and in breadth from 099 to 093 

 inch. It is not easy to confuse the eggs of any other British 

 wader with those of the Sanderliner. 



THE BUFF-BKEASTED SANDPIPEB. 

 {Tryngites rufescens.) * 



Plate 43, Fig. 11. 



Some sixteen instances of the occurrence of this American 

 species on the shores of Great Britain are admitted. It may be 

 regarded as a summer visitor to the Arctic regions of America, 

 although it has not been recorded from Greenland. From Alaska 

 its range extends to the Siberian coasts of Bering Straits ; and 

 Middendorff obtained a single example on the southern shores of 

 the Sea of Ochotsk. 



The nest is always on the ground, and is scarcely distinguishable 

 from that of the Golden Plover ; it must consequently be very 

 slight, little more than a depression, scantily lined with a few dead 

 leaves and bits of dry grass. 



The eggs of the Buff-breasted Sandpiper, of which I have 

 examined the magnificent series in the Museum of the Smithsonian 

 Institution at Washington, are about as large as those of the 

 Wood-Sandpiper, but in colour they rival those of the Kedshank. 

 The only adjective that an ornithologist can apply to them is 

 " superb." They vary in ground-colour from pale sandy to rich 

 ochre, sometimes with a slight olive tint. The overlying spots 

 are a very rich reddish-brown, varying somewhat in intensity, 

 most of them very bold irregular blotches, often confluent round 

 the large end of the egg, varied with smaller spots. The under- 

 lying markings are numerous, well defined, and pale lavender in 

 colour. On some eggs the spots are smaller, whilst in others they 



* Tringifes sub-ruficollis (V.) — Sharpe, Handb., III., p. 264. 



