296 BULLETIN 142 ; UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



At Whitewater Lake, in Manitoba, Mr. Harrold noted one each 

 day on May 10 and 11, 1924, and 12 at the same place in 1925, prac- 

 tically all between May 13 and 20. I saw one at Lake Winnipegosis 

 on June 5, 1913, a late date. On the Atlantic coast it is known only 

 as a rare straggler in the spring and it is practically unknown on 

 the Pacific coast. 



Nesting. — Practically all of what little we know of the nesting 

 habits of the Hudsonian godwit is contained in Roderick MacFar- 

 lane's notes. A female and four eggs were taken near Fort Anderson 

 on June 9, 1862, from a nest on the ground made of a " few decayed 

 leaves lying in a small hole scooped in the earth." Another nest on 

 the Lower Anderson was " on the borders of a small lake " and was 

 made of " a few withered leaves placed in a hole or depression in the 

 ground." 



A set of four eggs, in the Thayer collection, was collected by Bishop 

 J. O. Stringer at Mackenzie Bay, June 30, 1897, from " a nest situated 

 in a hollow in the grass." Edward Arnold also has a set of four 

 eggs, taken by Bishop Stringer in the same locality on June 29, 1899; 

 the nest was " in a tuft of grass on an island in Mackenzie Bay." 



Eggs. — The Hudsonian godwit probably lays four eggs normally, 

 though there are sets of three in collections. What few eggs I have 

 seen, not over a baker's dozen, are ovate pyriform in shape and have 

 little or no gloss. The ground colors vary from " dark olive buff " 

 to " olive buff," or from " light brownish olive " to " ecrue olive." 

 They are usually sparingly marked with rather obscure spots, irregu- 

 larly distributed, but generally mostly around the larger end, in 

 darker shades of similar colors, such as "buffy olive," "light brown- 

 ish olive," " buffy brown," " bister," or " sepia." There are usually 

 underlying spots of " hair brown " or shades of " drab," and some 

 eggs have a few black dots at the larger end. 



A set in the United States National Museum is thus described for 

 me by J. H. Riley : 



No two eggs in this set are alike. They vary in ground color from a little 

 darker than " citrine drab," through " light brownish olive," to " dark olive 

 buff." The darkest egg has a zone of " olive brown " spots at the larger end, 

 with a few " clove brown " dots here and there, and a few scattered spots and 

 blotches of " olive brown " over the rest of the egg. The next darkest egg is 

 similar, but with the contrast between the ground color and the " olive brown " 

 aone more pronounced and an increase in size and number of the " clove brown " 

 spots. The lightest ("dark olive buff" ground) egg has a solid cap of "clove 

 brown" at the larger end and quite numerous blotches, scrawls, and spots of 

 " clove brown " and " olive brown," with a few shell markings of " drab " over 

 the rest of the surface. 



Some of the eggs I have seen are much like well-marked eggs of the 

 black-tailed godwit. The measurements of 27 eggs average 55.2 by 



