THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPERS. 223 



est pitch. I went to the spot where I had marked the bird, 

 put it up again, and again saw it, after a short low flight, 

 drop suddenly into cover. Once more it rose a few feet 

 from where it had settled. I fired ! and in a minute had in 

 my hand a true Jack-Snipe, the undoubted parent of the nest 

 of eggs ! ... As usual, I took measures to let the whole 

 party have a share in my gratification before I again gave the 

 word to advance. In the course of the day and night I found 

 three more nests and examined the birds of each. One allowed 

 me to touch it with my hand before it rose, and another only 

 got up when my foot was within six inches of it. I was never 

 afterwards able to see a nest myself, though I beat through 

 numbers of swamps ; several with eggs, mostly hard sat upon, 

 were found by people cutting hay in boggy places in July." 



Egg S . Four in number, and pear-shaped. The colour varies 

 very much in the same way as in the eggs of the Common 

 Snipe, but the reddish-brown spotting is more frequent, and I 

 have not seen any of a pale stone-grey colour. Axis, 1-45-17 

 inch ; diam., ro5-n. 



THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPERS. GENUS LIMICOLA. 



Limicola, Koch, Syst. baier. Zool. p. 316 (1816). 



Type, L. platyrhyncha (Temm.). 



The single species representing this genus has much of a 

 Snipe in its general aspect, but is, in reality, a Sandpiper, 

 allied to the Dunlins and the Curlew Sandpiper. Like the 

 latter, it has the eye placed in the side of the head like a 

 Dunlin, and not like a Wood-cock or a Snipe. The bill is 

 broad and flat and tapers to an awl-shaped point, but is slightly 

 curved downwards at the tip. It is of considerable length, 

 and is longer than the tarsus. 



I. THE BROAD-BILLED SANDPIPER. LIMICOLA 

 PLATYRHYNCHA. 



Tringa platyrhyncha, Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 398 (1815); 

 Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 224 (1852); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. 

 B. iii. p. 197 (1885) 



