166 



THE OOLOGIST. 



1898. This same nest was again re- 

 corded in the Ottawa Naturalist for De- 

 cember 1899 by the Rev. C. J. Young, 

 but this nest was also found on the 

 ground and the parent bird was not 

 secured and although both Dr. Clarke 

 and the Rev. C. J. Young are 

 enthusiastic and reliable ornitholo- 

 gists, yet as they did not secure the 

 parent bird, identification was not 

 complete, besides Mr. C. A. Reed in 

 his recent work on North American 

 Birds Eggs, gives a figure of one of 

 these supposed eggs of the Solitary 

 Sandpiper found by Dr. Clarke, and 

 it very much resembles a variety of 

 the Spotted Sandpiper's eggs both in 

 size, shape and style of mirkings, 

 whereas my authentic eggs of the Soli- 

 tary Sandpiper are larger, more pyri- 

 form, finer grain of shell an;l more 

 polished and the ground color is pale 

 greenish white, a tint never seen on a 

 Spotted Sandpiper yet, but usually 

 found in eggs of the European Grean 

 and Wood Sandpipers, in facttheeggs 

 of the Solitary Sandpiper, as was to be 

 expected; bear a strong family likeness 

 to eggs of the Green Sandpiper, but 

 are one-third smaller as they should 

 be. 



Now for my records which are ab- 

 solutely authentic and thoroughly con- 

 clusive, and establish once for all, 

 the fact that the Solitary Sandpiper 

 does not lay its eggs on the ground 

 like other American Sandpipers, but 

 deposits its eggs in the nests of other 

 birds, often at a considerable distance 

 from the ground. 



In the spring of 1903, I engaged Mr. 

 Evan Thomson to collect birds eggs for 

 me in Northern Alberta, and when the 

 season was over he sent me a list with 

 notes on the specimens he had col- 

 lected among which was a record of 

 finding a clutch of Sandpiper's eggs 

 in an old American Robin's nest built 

 in a tree top. 



I felt sure these would turn out to 



be eggs of the Solitary Sandpiper and 

 in due time the eggs were sent down 

 to me. On unpacking the specimens 

 I saw at a glance they were unlike any 

 other American Sandpiper and as they 

 very much resembled a set of Green 

 Sandpipers in my collection except be- 

 ing smaller in size, I was quite posi- 

 tive in my own mind this was a genuine 

 clutch of the Solitary Sandpiper, and 

 several ornithologists who called upon 

 me to see my collection confirmed my 

 opinion. Among those who inspected 

 this clutch I may name the Rev. C. J. 

 Young of Madoc, Ontario, Mr. Edward 

 Arnold of Battle Creek, Mich., and 

 Mr. Edward Reinecke, of Buffalo, N. 

 Y. But as Mr. Thompson had failed 

 to secure the parent bird thus estab- 

 lishing identity completely, I thought 

 I would wait patiently for another j'ear 

 in hopes that another nest would be 

 found and the parent bird secured, 

 and in this we have been successful as 

 the following letter from Mr. Thomson 

 proves: 



"This season on June 9th I found 

 another set of Solitarj' Sandpipers' 

 eggs, this time in a Grackle'e nest in 

 a low tree. I blew the eggs and left 

 them until the next day intending to 

 return with my gun and shoot the bird 

 but on again visiting the nest, I found 

 the eggs were gone, evidently the bird 

 had removed them, as I saw no trace 

 of egg shells around. 



However, on the 20th of June I was 

 still more fortunate as I found another 

 clutch and shot the parent bird as she 

 Hew from the nest and secured the four 

 fresh eggs. This time the eggs were 

 found in a Cedar Waxwing's nest in a 

 spruce tree out in a swamp or muskeg." 



The following is a description of 

 the three sets of Solitary Sandpipers: 



Set I. Taken in Northern Alberta, 

 June 16, 1903, 4 eggs advanced in in- 

 cubation, collector, Evan Thomson. 

 This set was found in an old nest of 

 the American Robin built 15 feet up in 



