204 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



The internal dimensions of the nest as given by Audubon (1840) are: 

 Diameter, 2y 2 inches; depth, 1% inches. 



J. R. Whitaker writes, in his notes on these birds at Grand Lake, 

 Newfoundland, that the nest is nearly always amongst a labyrinth of 

 pools of water, and is usually on the side or the top of a hummock 

 of sphagnum moss, but I have found them on flat ground amongst 

 reindeer moss. When on a moss hummock, the scratch is about 2 

 inches deep and there is always an inch or so of material in the bot- 

 tom usually composed of cranberry leaves and short bits of cotton 

 grass stems. 



Eggs. — [Author's note: Four eggs is the rule with the least sand- 

 piper. They vary in shape from ovate pyriform (the usual shape) 

 to subj:>yriform, and they have only a slight gloss. The ground 

 colors vary from " deep olive buff " to " pale olive buff," or from 

 " pale pinkish buff " to " cartridge buff." There are two extreme 

 types of markings, the boldly blotched and the finely sprinkled type, 

 with many intergradations between them. Some eggs are more or 

 less evenly covered, usually more thickly about the larger end, with 

 a mixture of dots, small spots, and small, irregular blotches. In 

 some the blotches are larger, more elongated, often spirally arranged 

 and often confluent at the larger end. In still others the whole egg 

 is evenly covered with very fine dots and small markings. There 

 are two sets from Labrador of the latter type in my collection; one 

 has a pinkish ground color, covered uniformly with a fine sprinkling 

 of reddish brown markings, exactly like certain eggs of the western 

 sandpiper; the other set is similarly marked, but the ground color 

 is " olive buff " and the markings are in darker browns. At the 

 other end of the range of variation I have a particularly handsome 

 egg, which has an " olive buff " ground color, with a few large 

 splashes of " vinaceous drab," overlaid, chiefly around the larger end. 

 with a few great splashes of " liver brown," " chestnut brown," and 

 " bone brown." The ordinary markings are in various shades of 

 dark, rich browns, " bay," " liver brown," " chestnut," and " hazel," 

 deepening to blackish brown where the pigment is thickest. The 

 underlying spots are in pale shades of " vinaceous drab." The meas- 

 urements of 65 eggs in the United States National Museum average 

 29 by 21 millimeters; the eggs showing the four extremes measure 

 31 by 21, 30 by 22, 26.5 by 20, and 28 by 19 millimeters.] 



Young. — Incubation is believed to be performed largely by the 

 male. Mr. Philipp (1925) : 



Collected four birds from the nests and all proved to be males on dissection. 

 Also a bird which was accidentally stepped on while it was shielding four 

 young or " downies " was a male. In fact, after the eggs are laid both birds 

 are seldom seen around the nest. The incubating bird is most solicitous about 

 its nest. It sits v*ry closely and, when flushed, half runs, half flutters for 

 a few feet as if trying to lead the intruder away. If you are not deceived 



