observed on Waigats, S^c. 201 



So that practically the sufferers from our egg-collecting 

 were the dogs and not the Stints ! 



We found large numbers of nests at many of the places 

 visited, and took 183 eggs, all of which were fertile : a fact 

 worth recording. A series of photographs of the nests were 

 taken, the camera being placed vertically over them. In two 

 instances the bird came back and sat on her eggs to be 

 photographed ; it appeared to wonder what the large black 

 cloth and other paraphernalia (including the operator) were 

 for, but showed no signs of real fear. 



As in the case of Anthus cervinus, the question of assimi- 

 lated coloration was very interesting. Nine nests were found 

 one day in an hour, five on a shingle-bar, composed chiefly 

 of water-worn fragments of slate and covered in places with 

 a little dried yellow-grey grass ; and four — not a hundred 

 yards distant — were among richly- tinted green and brown 

 moss, sparsely covered with bright green grass. The five 

 placed among the dead grass were all of a grey tone of 

 colour with small si)ots ; while the four in the moss were 

 among the most richly coloured and blotched clutches we 

 took last year. It is now generally accepted that females 

 among the higher types of domestic animals are largely 

 influenced by the animals they see when pregnant ; but the 

 orthodox view is that birds know the futiire colour of their 

 eggs, and select a nesting-site to correspond. These and 

 other instances lead me to the belief that the bird is in some 

 cases influenced by her surroundings. 



29. Tringa temmincki, 



Temminck^'s Stint was the fourth species added to the 

 Waigats list. We first met with it on July 6th at the north 

 end of the island, where the adult male was shot and four 

 young in down were secured. We also found both parents 

 and four young in the south of Waigats, and were packing 

 the latter away in the knapsack when three juvenile Stints, 

 more advanced, were secured near by. As the latter showed 

 great anxiety to depart, the museum labels were attached to 

 their legs first ; in spite of which one wandered off seven or 



SER. VII. VOL. IV p 



