352 SCOLOPACIDJE. 



November, and of young being captured in March. Mr. Holds- 

 worth procured a beautiful egg from a wounded bird on the 31st 

 December, and I obtained another taken from a dead bird on the 

 29th March." 



From Tonghoo, Major Wardlaw Ramsay writes : " On the 14th 

 September, 1874, 1 extracted a perfect egg from a female that I had 

 shot. This seems a late date for the bird to be breeding." 



Reviewing the evidence now available, I should say broadly that 

 the majority bred once during the height of the rains and once 

 during the middle of the cold season ; but practically, in one place 

 or another, this species has been found breeding in almost every 

 month in the year ; and while I have no doubt that they have two 

 broods a year, I think it possible that, under favourable conditions, 

 they may have more. 



The eggs are almost invariably four in number. 



The eggs of this species are of a truly Scolopacinine type mode- 

 rately broad ovals, with one end, as it were, pulled out and pinched 

 near the extremity. They are, however, remarkably small for 

 the size of the bird, considering the natural order to which this 

 belongs. 



The Painted Snipe probably weighs three times as much as the 

 Jack Snipe, while the cubic contents of the egg of the former are 

 scarcely four-fifths of those of the eggs of the latter. In colour 

 and markings the egg has a somewhat Plover-like appearance. The 

 shell, very hard and of a close and compact texture, has commonly 

 a faint gloss. The ground-colour is a clear pale buff or warm cafe- 

 au-lait, thickly and boldly blotched and streaked with an intensely 

 deep and rich brown, which at a little distance appears perfectly 

 black, but which here and there pales to a raw sienna-brown. The 

 markings often cover considerably more than half the surface of 

 the egg. 



In length they vary from 1-29 to 1-49, and in breadth from 0-89 

 to 1-05 ; but the average of forty eggs is 1-4 by 0-99. 



Tringoides hypoleucus (Linn.). The Common Sandpiper. 



Actitis hypoleucos (Linn.\ Jerd. B. Ind. ii, p. 699. 



Tringoides hypoleucos (Zwm.), Hume, Hough Draft N. fy E. no. 893. 



"Within our limits, I only know for certain of the Common 

 Sandpiper breeding in Cashmere. There in May on the banks of 

 the iSindh and other rivers its nests are common. Mr. Brooks 

 and the late Major Cock found many, and I haA e received them 

 since from native collectors. 



It appears that they usually lay their eggs close to the water in 

 a little depression in the shingle or coarse sand without making 

 any nest, but that sometimes a lining of grass or dead leaves is 

 placed in the hollow. Usually the nests are in no W 7 ay concealed, 

 but at times they are partially hidden under a bush, tuft of grass, 

 or rock. This is my native informant's account ; I have seen no 

 nest myself. 



