20 Mr. J. D. D. La Touche on the [This, 



and in 1915 a number of eggs were brought to me by my 

 collector, avIio bad taken them on the stony beaches of the 

 Shanhaikuau River (Shih Ho) in April and May. On the 

 2nd of May of that year, 1 went out to search for the eggs 

 myself with the collector, and during the course of a day's 

 hunt saw a number of empty nests. One containing four 

 eggs was found. The old bird sneaked away at once, hut 

 ou our lying down a few yards from the nest, it was soon 

 seen running cautiously among the stones and it settled 

 down again on the eggs. An attempt to photograph the 

 bird on its nest having failed, I took the eggs, which were 

 incubated, but not too far advanced to preserve. This nest, 

 like all the others seen that day, was a rounded depression 

 among the shingle and had a thin lining of scraps of twigs 

 or grass. The nests were placed among the stones some 

 distance from the water. The birds lay from about the 

 middle of April to the first week in May. There are four 

 eggs in a clutch. These vary in shape from an ovate with 

 a much pointed apex to a pyriform shape, occasionally 

 much pinched in at the apex. There is a moderate gloss. 

 The ground-colour is a pale greyish green, sometimes a dull 

 reddish clay. The eggs are finely speckled with light or 

 dark reddish brown and lilac. The latter colour is on the 

 surface as well as within the shell. The speckling is often 

 thicker on the large end, but few have it so dense as to 

 form a cap. Thirty eggs average ]'4I x 1"04 in., and 

 measure from 1'37 to 1*51 in. in length and from 0'99 x 

 1-07 in breadth. The plate in 'The Ibis' represents a very 

 dull and red type which only a few of my specimens 

 resemble. 



215. .ffigialitis dnbia (Scop.). 



^^il(jialitis dubius D. & O. p. 429. 



^gialitis minor La T. p. 580. 



The Lesser Ringed Plover arrives early in April and is 

 common during that month in the marshes. It breeds 

 commonly on the stony reaches of the Shih Ho, from which 



