PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 453 



of breeding is said to have taken place in Lincolnshire in 1885. In the marshes 

 of Norfolk it nested to 1829-35, but a pair or two seem to have been met with at 

 a later date, for a nest is believed to have been taken in 1847. Outside the British 

 Isles it breeds in Iceland regularly, and has nested in the Faeroes : on the Continent 

 it occurs on the heaths of Belgium, and is common in the Dutch polders, and local 

 in North Germany, not uncommon in Hungary, while in Russia it is found in the 

 Baltic provinces, Poland, the governments of Moscow, Riazan, Ufa, and Perm north 

 to lat. 60, and the Central Volga. In Jylland it is local, but breeds in Sweden, 

 though sparingly, on Oland and Gotland. In Asia it is found in the Tobolsk govern- 

 ment and the Irtysh valley north to 61, the Baraba steppe east to 84, and in 

 small numbers in Russian Turkestan. In Eastern Asia it is replaced by an allied 

 race. On migration it occurs through Southern Europe, wintering in the Mediter- 

 ranean basin and North Africa, where it has been recorded from the Sudan and 

 South Abyssinia. Siberian birds winter in Southern Asia, south to India, Ceylon, 

 and China. As a casual visitor it has been recorded from Australia, as well as the 

 Canaries, Madeira, Azores, the Petschora river, and possibly Greenland. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A bird of passage ; it is occasionally met with in the winter 

 months also, and it was formerly a summer visitor and a British-breeding bird. The 

 autumn passage begins in August, and the return journey takes place in April and 

 May. The east coast of England from the Humber southwards is the most favoured ; 

 in Ireland the species occurs chiefly in autumn. A gregarious migrant. [A. L. T.] 



4. Nest and Eggs. Sometimes the nest may be found on a tussock in a 

 marsh, surrounded by shallow water, but more frequently in thick meadow grass. 

 It is a depression on the ground lined with a thick pad of dead grasses, but it is not 

 recorded by which sex it is made. (PI. LVH.) The eggs are normally 4 in number, 

 though 3 may sometimes be found, especially in second or third layings. A clutch of 

 5 eggs exists in the Hungarian National Museum, and 6 have been found in a nest 

 in Holland, but it is doubtful whether the latter were laid by one bird. The eggs 

 are pyriform in shape, laid with converging points, and range in ground-colour 

 from olivaceous brown and exceptionally reddish brown, to olive, or greenish olive. 

 Some eggs have a pale greenish blue ground, and show hardly any markings, but 

 most eggs are blotched and spotted rather sparingly with olive-brown and under- 

 lying markings of light ashy grey. These markings are generally most numerous 

 towards the big end. Average size of 70 eggs, 2-13 x 1'47 in. [54-1 x 37'3 mm.]. 

 Little information is available as to the share of the sexes in incubation. Taczan- 

 owski says that both take part in the work, and this is also stated by von 



VOL. III. 3 N 



