EED-NECKED PHALAEOPE. 7 



" The usual number of eggs is four, which vary considerably in exact 

 coloration. The ground-color in the very large series before me, obtained in the 

 vicinity of Saint Michaels, shades by every degree from greenish-clay color to 

 warm, buffy, olive-brown. The spots and markings are very irregular in size and 

 shape, but are usually larger about the large end of egg. These spots and 

 blotches, which are rarely confluent, occupy about one-half the surface, and are 

 from dark chocolate to very dark umber-brown. These eggs measure, taking 

 extremes, 1 '20 by '85; 1"16 by "87; 1*12 by "80; within which measurements 

 will fall most of the eggs of this species. Like the Red Phalarope this species 

 extends its winter range far south on the coasts of both continents. It is known 

 among whalers and fishermen by the same name as its relative, and both unite in 

 giving animation to many an otherwise lifeless and forbidding scene along our 

 northern shore." 



Referring to the large series of eggs of this species in the Smithsonian 

 Institution, Washington, Dr. E. Cones states that their measurements are as 

 follows: — "The longest and narrowest egg measures I'SO inches by only 0"75 ; 

 a short and thick one only I'lO by 0*82 ; average about 1"20 by 0'80." * 



Mr. H. Seebohm says the eggs " vary in length from 1"2 to 1*05 inch, and in 

 breadth from "85 to "8 inch." f 



Mr. H. E. Dresser states that the measurements of a large series of eggs of 

 this Phalarope in his collection from the Outer Hebrides, Norway, the Faeroes, 

 and Greenland, vary from 1-1 by '82 inch to 1-25 by -85 inch, and 1-17 by 

 •85 inch. $ 



* ' Birds of the North-West,' p. 471. 



t 'History of British Birds,' vol. iii. p. 91. 



+ ' History of the Birds of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 604. 



2a 



