CHARADRIIDAE--SCOLOPACIDAE. 



the nature of the food may, in my opinion, be the cause. (See in 

 this connection wliat is said respecting Lanis argcntafiis in the 

 introduction to the XLI. Family). 



CHARADRIUS APRICARIUS L. 



Dr. S.'WBY says ') that after observing a large number of clutches 

 during many years, he was struck by the regularity with which a 

 certain colour of the eggshell predominated according as the season 

 was advanced. As a general rule, the early sets seemed to him to 

 be of a dull tint with an olive green ground colour; slightly later 

 on a creamy white, often tinged with warm yellowish brown, oc- 

 curred; the latter shade was deepest and was found most freijuently 

 in June and July when the breeding season was approaching its 

 termination; the spots were then also very numerous and coloured 

 more or less reddish brown. 



Saxby's opinion that the dull tinted eggs which are laid early in 

 the season, are probably laid by older female birds, is not supported 

 by motives. 



AEGIALITES HIATICULA (L.). 



As in all the kinds of eggs of which the fundamental layers are 

 coloured a more or less distinct greenish blue by a compound of 

 oocyanin and lime, in liiaticula, too, eggs and occasionally a whole 

 set, are found in which owing to the absence of the usual surface 

 pigment-layer (sometimes also of the spots) this greenish blue colour 

 occurs on the outside as surface pigment, hi such eggs the com- 

 position of the lime shell is in some instances normal and in others 

 abnormal. 



') See: F. PovNTiNG, Eggs of British Birds, Z.//;)/co/flt'. (London, 1895— 6) p. 40. 



