PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 449 



55 in the Baraba steppe and 54 in E. Siberia. Sarudny found a pair breeding 

 in the Turgai government. On migration it occurs thoughout Europe, wintering 

 in the Mediterranean basin and Africa, south to Damara Land and Cape Colony. 

 In Asia it ranges south to the Indian Ocean and east to China and Japan, also 

 visiting the Malay Archipelago, Norfolk Island, Tasmania, and Australia. It has 

 occurred casually on Madeira, the Canaries and Azores, and apparently in Florida 

 as well as South America. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A summer visitor to the north of Scotland, and a bird of 

 passage to our coasts. A few also remain in our area during the winter, principally 

 in the south of Ireland. Nocturnal and diurnal migrant. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. The nest is a mere depression in the mossy ground, 

 scantily lined with a few bents, leaves, or fragments of moss. It is generally to be 

 found in heather, at no great distance from a loch, and in many cases is sheltered by 

 a piece of rock or boulder buried in the ground. (PL LVI.) T. E. Buckley found one 

 bird incubating eggs between two bits of rock in 1869, and again in the same spot in 

 1871. On the Continent the nest has been found in marshes partly overgrown with 

 young trees. The eggs are normally 4 in number, sometimes only 3. Eight have 

 been found in one nest, but were probably laid by two hens. They are exceedingly 

 handsome, pyriform in shape, and placed with converging points. The ground- 

 colour ranges from pale buff or yellowish white to a warm stone colour, boldly 

 spotted and blotched with rich reddish brown to dark brown, and with purplish 

 grey underlying shellmarks. (PL M.) Average size of 63 eggs, 1'97 x 1-33 in. 

 [49 - 8 x 33 '9 mm.]. Collett states that incubation is carried on almost entirely by 

 the male, but no exact observations on the length of the incubation period seem 

 to have been made. In Scotland full clutches may be found from about 10th 

 May onward, and the average date is about mid-May, but eggs may be met with 

 in Lapland from early June till the end of the month. Only one brood is reared 

 in the season. [F. c. E. J.] 



5. Food. Annelids and other marine and shore worms ; beetles, and other 

 insects and their larvae; small crabs, shrimps; sand-eels and other small fishes 

 (Patten, Aquatic Birds, p. 350) ; fish-fry, tadpoles, and frogs (Slater, British Birds, 

 their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 166). One stomach examined by the Rev. H. H. Slater 

 was full of crane-flies (Ibid., p. 166). The young feed chiefly on insects and their 

 larvae, and they are accompanied and no doubt aided in their search for the same 

 by both parents, [w. F.] 



