MONGOLIAN PLOVER 255 



Eggs. — The nine eggs collected by Doctor Stejneger vary in shape 

 from ovate to ovate pyriform and they show no gloss. The ground 

 colors vary from " cinnamon buff " to " deep olive buff." They are 

 quite evenly, but not heavily, marked with small spots of very dark 

 browns, " warm sepia " to " bone brown," or brownish black. There is 

 a 3et of three eggs, which seems to be the usual number, in the collec- 

 tion of Col. John E. Thayer, taken at Omsk, Siberia, on June 9, 1893. 

 These are subpyriform in shape, without gloss. The ground colors 

 vary from " deep olive buff' " to " pale olive buff." One egg is uni 

 formly covered with fine pen-like scrawls of " sepia " and " pale 

 violet gray." The others are marked, chiefly in a ring near the large 

 end, with simdar scraAvls and with irregular spots of brownish black 

 or black. The measurements of 15 eggs average 35.2 by 26.2 milli- 

 meters; the eggs show^ing the four extremes measure 37.5 by 27, 32 

 by 28.8 and 30.5 by 23.2 milimeters. 



Mr. Jourdain says in his notes : 



The 12 eggs taken by Osmaston (1927) averaged 36.7 by 26.3, while the 6 

 obtained by Whistler (1925) averaged 38.4 by 26.5 millimeters, thus agreeing 

 well on the whole with those of the eastern race, but are as a rule rather 

 larger. The coloration is also similar, speckled with dark brown spots on a 

 ground of creamy stone. 



The parent bird slips off the nest very quietly and returns very cautiously by 

 short runs. It is naturally very difficult to follow in the great waste of sand 

 and shingle. When disturbed on the breeding ground the old birds behave 

 much as other sand plovers, flying round uneasily in circles and running about 

 swiftly, but were less noisy than common or lesser ringed plovers. 



Young. — Doctor Stejneger (1885) says that the young ones are 

 found — 



about the middle of July. About this time the families retire from the 

 beach and are now met with in the interior, where they ascend the mountains 

 in search of tender insects. I frequently met them at an altitude of 1,000 feet 

 or more above sea level. About the middle of September the families return to 

 the lowlands and to the beach, soon afterwards leaving the islands. 



While at Glinka, on Copper Island, in July, 1883, a young bird of this species, 

 not yet fully feathered, was brought to me alive. Allowed to run free on the 

 floor it immediately commenced a very animated pursuit of the rather numerous 

 flies, whicli were cauglit with remarkable precision and rapidity and devoured 

 with an unsatiable appetite. The little fellow did not pay any attention to the 

 presence of several persons in the small room, but when the dog rose from his 

 nap in the corner, the swiftfooted fly killer suddenly dropped fiat on the floor, 

 with withdrawn neck, making himself as small and flat as possible, and re- 

 mained thus perfectly immovable until the dog turned his head the other way, 

 then he ran off to the darkest corner of the room, where he remained until the 

 former laid down in his old place. Then he started the fly hunting again ; 

 the dog rose once more, and the same performance was repeated. Within half 

 an hour, however, he had learned that the dog did not take any notice of him 

 whatever, and consequently he afterwards paid as little attention to the dog 

 as to man. 



