4 CHARADEIID.^. 



secured. The positions of the nests were interesting : only two were on the lower 

 ground near the Gobista ; one was a mile both from the sea and the river ; all 

 the others — also several old nests — were on the tundra not far from the edge of 

 the bluffs which form the margin of the river-basin. Grey Plovers seem to prefer 

 this position, which gives them good posts of observation and allows them to take 

 their young easily into the marshes below to feed. We found a ready way of 

 locating the nest of this bird was to watch a pair of Richardson's Skua hunting over 

 the tundra, for as soon as they approached the nest of the Plovers, both the latter 

 rose in the air and drove the Skuas away. We never observed these birds breeding 

 near each other, each pair appearing to take possession of about a mile of country. 

 All the nests were slight depressions in the peat, lined with a little lichen." 



Mr. H. J. Pearson kindly lent me four representative varieties of these eggs 

 to figure in the present work (Figures 7 to 10). He sends me the measurements 

 of 15 eggs contained in four clutches of 4, 4, 3, and 4 eggs respectively. These 

 vary from 2-12 to 1-87 inch in length, by 1-47 to 1-37 inch in breadth, averaging 

 2-01 by 1-42 inch. 



I am informed by Mr. H. Leyborne Popham that last year (1895) he found the 

 Grey Plover nesting on the Yenisei river in lat. 72° N., a locality which he believes 

 has hitherto not been recorded. South of this latitude the bird was not observed. 



The late Mr. H. Seebohm describes the eggs of this species as follows * : — 

 " The eggs of the Grey Plover are four in number, intermediate iu colour between 

 those of the Golden Plover and the Lapwing, and subject to variation, some being 

 much browner, and otliers more olive, none quite as olive as typical Lapwing's 

 eggs or as buff as typical ones of the Golden Plover, but the blotching is in every 

 respect the same ; the underlying spots are equally indistinct, the surface-spots 

 are generally large, especially at the large end, but occasionally very small and 

 scattered, and sometimes taking the form of thin streaks. They vary in length 

 from 2-2 to 1-9 inch, and in breadth from 14 to 1*35 inch. Only one brood is 

 reared in the year." 



Middendorff states that the measurements of the eggs he obtained on the 

 Taimyr peninsula averaged 2T2 inch by 1-41 inch; the largest measuring 2-19 in 

 length and the smallest 1-89 inch by 1-41 inch.f 



The late Dr. T. M. Brewer gives the measurements of three sets (4, 4, and 3 

 eggs respectively), obtained by Mr. MacFarlane in Arctic America, as varying from 

 2-30 to 1-90 inch in length by 1-47 to 1-40 iu breadth. % 



* ' History of British Birds,' vol. iii. pp. 54, 55. t ' Sibirische Eeise,' Band ii. p. 209. 



4: ' Water Birds of North America,' vol. i. p. 137. 



