ClIARADRIIDAE— SCOLOPACIDAE. 



confined to tlie big half of the egg; they are at any rate strongest 

 there. This character of marking sometimes occurs in vancllus-eggs, 

 but it cannot obtain as the average type of marking of that species. 



Among the Scolopacidac, Scolopax rusticola is well specialized 

 oologically by shape and ground colour; the ground colour reminds 

 one of one of the egg-types of Perdix perdix ; the marking is allied 

 to that of Limosa limosa and Numenius arquata. On examining the 

 shell I observed that it deviates, internally also, from that of all 

 other species belonging to both the Scolopacidac and the Charadriidae, 

 as the fundamental layers are not coloured bluish green, but are 

 white; the four abnormal unspotted eggs in the set depicted in 

 Dresser's Work '), in which the surface pigment-layer is also 

 absent, are in fact all pure white. 



The eggs of Totonus totanus which mostly show dark, sharply 

 outlined spots that are usually evenly distributed over the whole 

 surface, possess in this respect characteristics which are peculiar 

 in a much greater measure to Charadriidae than to Scolopacidac. 



A marking running spirally is an almost unvarying rule in eggs 

 of Scolopax rusticola, Gallinago gallinago, and Pelidna alpina schinzii ; 

 in Totanus glareola it occurs rather strongly; on the other hand, it 

 is rarely pronounced in T. totanus, Pavoncclla pugnax, Limosa 

 limosa and Numenius arquata. 



A striking peculiarity of the above mentioned marking, occurring, 

 e. g., sometimes in eggs of Sternidae also, is the fact that the 

 spiral is dextral in every instance: there are no exceptions -). 



') I. c. page 686. 



-') See: Dr. Altum, Die spiralige Anlage in der Zeichnung vieler Vogeieier. 

 (Journ. f. Ornith., XII, 1864, p. 103 et seq.) and: G. Krause, Die Oologie und 

 ihre Eigenheiten, IV. „Dreher". (Zeitschr. f. Ool. [Krause] I, 1911, Nr. 7, p 

 52 et seq.). 



