us BRITISH BIRDS. WITH THEIR NESTS AND EGGS 



white ; chin, throat, sides of neck and breast, white, with brown streaks and spots 

 on the centre of the feathers ; rest of under parts, including axillaries, white, with 

 a few dusky streaks on the flanks, thighs, and under tail-coverts ; legs and feet 

 dusky brown, greenish at the joints. Length 6^-7 inches, closed wing 4^. The 

 female has a tendency towards white on the margins of the back feathers ; other- 

 wise the sexes are alike. 



Young birds have much greyish-white on the upper parts. 



Winter plumage closely resembles that of the Dunlin, being white below, with 

 a tendency to dusky on the throat, and grey above with darker centres to some 

 of the feathers ; nothing of the summer chestnut remains. The cubitus (forward 

 angle of the wing) is black, however, as in the Sanderling, so conspicuously so, 

 that there ought to be no difficulty in distinguishing this bird from a Dunlin, 

 even on the wing at some distance. (The above from birds shot at Foochow, 

 28, 10, 1886). 



Nestling : upper parts black, dotted with white, and marked with chestnut on 

 the sides ; sides of head and under parts greyish-white ; several dusky lines on 

 the side of the head ; throat buff-tinted. 



I have not had the fortune to find this bird's nest in Norway, though I was 

 on the Dovrefjeld at the proper time of year, but the season was a backward one. 

 One of the females I prepared had probably laid one egg, however, the others 

 most certainly had not ; this was the first fortnight in June. My friend Mitchell 

 found the eggs in the same locality on June i5th. Dann and Wolley speak of the 

 bird as a late breeder, and the former gives June 24th, the latter " the third week 

 in June," as the time to find eggs ; Abel Chapman, " mid-June." Probably the 

 date varies a fortnight or more, according to the season, and the amount of 

 snow on the fells. The nest is placed on a low sedge-clothed hummock, in an 

 open grassy part of a mountain marsh. The nest-hollow is deep (for a wader) and 

 is lined with dry grass ; but individuals which are aware that they lay comparatively 

 dark coloured eggs, use (Mitchell, " Zoologist," 1877, p. 204) withered willow 

 leaves instead of grass, or, more probably, add them after the eggs are laid. Eggs 

 four, stone-buff to brown in ground colour, mottled and spotted with " neutral 

 tint " and dark brown ; length i J inch by A, or a shade more. The incubating 

 bird (I can find no information as to sex) sits very close, and only leaves the 

 eggs when nearly trodden upon ; sometimes it runs off, sometimes takes wing. 



I give the following extracts from my note-books, not because I think them 

 more interesting than those of better authorities, who have had opportunities of 

 observing this bird, but because I hold that the less a work like the present is 

 made up of a hotch-potch of quotations, the better. 



