PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 437 



Kolguev, and perhaps also Waigatz, and locally throughout Russia south to the 

 Perm and Orenburg governments, the Sarpa steppe, the Lower Don, and Bessarabia. 

 It also breeds in Hungary (and is said to do so also in Bohemia), North Germany, 

 Denmark, the Low Countries, and Northern France. In Western Asia it is found 

 in the Uralsk and Turgai governments, east to the Kolyma and north to lat. 72 

 at least on the Yenisei. Its winter range extends through Europe and the Atlantic 

 Isles over Africa, where it is found both on the east and west sides south to Cape 

 Colony, as well as in some parts of Southern Asia from Transcaucasia and Trans- 

 caspia to North India and Burma. It has also been recorded from China, Japan, 

 Ceylon, Borneo, and once from Iceland and Bering Island, as well as in Eastern 

 America from Greenland and Ontario south to Guadeloupe, Barbados, and once in 

 Colombia. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. Chiefly known as a bird of passage along the eastern sea- 

 board of Great Britain ; occasionally met with in the winter months. But a very 

 few are still summer visitors, breeding in the eastern coastal districts of England. 

 To the Irish coasts it is a rare visitor, chiefly in autumn. (For a full statement 

 cf. Patten, Irish Naturalist, 1900, pp. 187-209). [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a neat little hollow, generally placed in 

 thick luxuriant grass and well concealed. It is lined with fine grasses, and is con- 

 structed by the hen bird. (PL LV.) The eggs are normally four in number, and are 

 pyriform in shape, and placed with the pointed ends converging. The ground- 

 colour ranges from pale greenish to greyish or ochreous as a rule, with bold blotches 

 and spots of very dark sepia or chocolate-brown, which are generally thickest at 

 the big end, and ashy-grey underlying blotches. A not very rare variety has, 

 when fresh, the ground-colour a beautiful pale blue, which, however, soon fades, and 

 white eggs occur at times. (PL M.) Average size of 120 eggs, 1'73 x 1-24 in. [44-1 x 

 31 -4 mm.]. The breeding season begins in May, and eggs may be taken after the 

 first week in that month in Central Europe, though more frequently after the 

 middle of May, while in the north of Europe they are not laid till June. Incubation 

 is performed by the hen alone, and the duration of the period is given by Naumann 

 as from 17 to 19 days, but this statement must be received with some reserve. 

 Only one brood is normally reared during the season. [F. c. R. J.] 



5. Food. Insects and worms. Cordeaux found small bronze winged beetles, 

 earwigs, and small fragments of felspar and quartz in the stomachs of birds shot 

 in Lincolnshire. Naumann mentions aquatic insects and their larvae, small beetles, 

 Orthoptera, and worms. Jackel found seeds of Polygonum persicaria, many species 



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