38 EGGS AND EGG-COLLECTING. 
colour of the eggs is stone or cream, spotted and blotched 
with umber or blackish-brown, of various sizes and shapes. 
THE LANDRAIL. 
Tue position selected by the Landrail for her nest is on the 
ground, amongst grass, underwood, clover, or corn. It is 
loosely constructed of dry herbage. Her eggs vary greatly 
in number, from seven, eight, or nine to as many as fifteen, 
and are of a dingy white, suffused with a reddish tinge, 
freckled and spotted with red, brown, and purplish-grey. 
THE WIGEON. 
Tuts bird has been known to breed in Scotland and Ire- 
land, but its favourite places are Scandinavia, Finland, and 
Northern Russia. The nest is placed in a clump of rushes 
or a tuft of heather, its materials being reeds and decayed 
rushes, with a beautiful inner lining of down off the parent 
bird, which lays from seven to ten creamy-white eggs, of 
a very oval shape. Broods have been hatched at different 
times in the Zoological Gardens. 
THE COMMON. SKUA. 
N:pIrIcaTion is carried on by the Skua in companies, in 
the Shetland Islands only. The nest is placed on the 
ground, and.is made of dead ling, moss, and dry grass, in 
which are deposited two eggs only, of varying colour. Some 
are of a dark olive brown, whilst others are of a greener 
tint, with black-brown spots, intermixed with small speckles 
of a whitish or rusty colour. 
