LITTLE-STINT, CURLEW-SANDPIPER, ETC. 473 



close to the shore. The nest has been described as an " exceptionally 

 deep cup-shaped depression, slightly lined with fragments of moss and 

 dead leaves of the bilberry." One found by the Rev. H. H. Slater in 

 North Iceland was "a slight hollow in a withered tuft of Dryas 

 octopetala, and rather a substantial nest for a Wader, consisting of a 

 good handful of leaves of Dryas and Salix lanata, a little short grass, 

 two white ptarmigan's feathers, and a few of the parents'." l The male 

 has frequently been found incubating, and also in attendance on the 

 young ; Mr. Collett stated that he never found any but males tending 

 the broods, 2 and Mr. Abel Chapman usually found the male at the 

 nest. 3 On the other hand, the Rev. H. H. Slater says, " In the nests 

 I have seen (not a great number) I happen to have met with the 

 female only." 4 This species is a close sitter, especially when the 

 nest is at all concealed. Colonel Feilden almost trod on a sitting 

 bird, which fluttered off, " feigning lameness," 5 a habit to which the 

 purple-sandpiper is much given. Mr. P. F. Bunyard, describing the 

 behaviour of a pair with young on the Faroes says he had never 

 seen so much anxiety displayed by the parents of any other species. 

 During their demonstration on the ground they made "a peculiar 

 squawking noise." 6 



The eggs of the purple-sandpiper have been already described 

 in the "Classified Notes." Those of the little-stint are pyriform in 

 shape, laid as usual with converging points, and four in number. In 

 character of markings they resemble small eggs of the dunlin, the 

 ground-colour ranging from pale ochreous to greenish white or pale 

 green, generally blotched and spotted boldly with deep rich red- 

 brown, especially towards the big end. Sometimes the markings 

 coalesce and form large blotches with a few light ashy shellmarks. 

 Average size of thirty eggs, l'14x -82 in. [28'9 x 20'8 mm.]. Those of 

 the curlew-sandpiper are also normally four in number, and are com- 



1 H. H. Slater, British Birds, their Nests and Eggs, v. p. 137. 



2 Yarrell, British Birds, iii. p. 411. 3 Wild Norivay, p. 295. 

 4 H. H. Slater, op. cit., v. p. 137. 



6 Zoologist, 1866, p. 32. Ibid., 1906, pp. 89, 90. 



