SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA 19 



information as to any full clutch numbering less. Typically the eggs 

 are far more tern-like in character than like snipe's eggs as one 

 would have expected. As a rule they are broad ovals, distinctly 

 pointed at one end and sometimes slightly "peg-top" in shape, but 

 never the actual peg-top of the true snipes' eggs. The texture of 

 the eggs is fine and smooth and often has a considerable gloss, 

 which is more or less permanent, as I have eggs in my collection 

 more than twenty years old which still show a fine glossy surface. 

 Hume thus describes his eggs : — 



" The ground colour varies from pale yellowish-white, through 

 various shades of buff and buffy-stone colour to a reddish caf6- 

 au-laifc. The mai-kings, never very densely set and at times very 

 sparse, consist of different shades of brown, brownish-yellow and 

 brownish-red on the one hand ; and greys, from sepia to purple, on 

 the other. The former occur in moderate-sized blotches, spots and 

 specks as primary markings. Often these are more numerous in 

 a cap or zone about the large end. Occasionally not a single blotch 

 or spot is T<J of an inch in diameter, and nine out ot ten are little more 

 than specks ; but in other eggs many of the blotches, especially 

 about the large end, are a J of an incli and upwards in length. The 

 greys, pinkish, lavender, sepia, occur as small clouds, spots and smears, 

 secondary or surface-looking markings, rarely either large or thickly- 

 set, except when amongst the Ijlotches of a zone or cap when the 

 eggs exhibit such. 



"A large series, chiefly Northern European, vary from 1'5 to 1"8 

 in length and from 1'3 to 1'5 in breadth. I have no Himalayan 

 eggs, but I suspect that like tlie birds they would average smaller 

 than European specimens." 



My eggs which comprise series from Scotland, England, Germany 

 and India agree well with Hume's description except one clutch from 

 Germany which has a red cafe-au-lait ground with dense blotches 

 and smears of rich Vandyke brown and a few subsidiary blotches 

 and smears of deep lavender. 



My Indian eggs average I'G" X I'S'i" (-= 40'6 X 33-5 mm.) as 

 against an average of 1-70" X 1-34" (= 43-1 X 34-0 mm.) for English 

 and Scotch eggs, and 1-69" X 1-32" (=42-9 X 33-5 mm.) for German 

 eggs. My biggest egg is one from Germany, measuring 1"86" X 1'54" 

 (= 47'2 X 391 mm.); my smallest is from Scotland and measures 

 1-49" X 1-26" (= 37-8 X 32-0;mm.). 



