BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. 43 
unable to fly the last week in the following month. The 
nest is placed in a hummock of grass. 
The eggs are, in general, of a deep chocolate colour, 
sometimes spotted and mottled with a darker shade of the 
same. They are four in number. 
Male; length, not quite six inches and a half; the bill, 
which is ‘par excellence,’ and that no doubt literally, for, as 
in all such cases, it is sure to be adapted and best adapted 
to the peculiar individuality and idiosyncrasy of the bird, its 
separate and appropriate characteristic, is dark brown towards 
the point, and inclining to reddish brown at the base; from 
it a dark brown streak goes back to the eye, and over it 
and extending over the eye a white one with a brown central 
longitudinal line. Iris, brown; head on the crown, brownish 
biack slightly varied with greyish white, and tinged with 
ferruginous; neck on the sides and in front, greyish white 
varied with black spots, and tinged with buff red; chin, 
nearly white, with minute white specks; throat and breast 
on the upper part, greyish white with black spots, and tinged 
with buff red; below white. Back on the lower part, black 
with broad buff white or rufous margins to the feathers. 
The wings have the first quill feather the longest; greater 
and lesser wing coverts, black with wide buff white cr rufous 
edzes to the feathers; primaries and secondaries, black with 
white shafts; tertiaries, black, the feathers broadly margined 
with buff white or riffous. The tail is ash grey, with buff 
margins to the feathers, except the two middle ones, which, 
longer also than the others, are nearly black, and tipped and 
margined with rufous; upper tail coverts, black with rufous 
edges; under tail coverts, white. Legs and toes, greenish 
black. 
The engraving is from a drawing by J. Gatcombe, Hsq. 
