472 THE BIRDS OF HELIGOLAND 



frequent call-notes, which are heard in the darkness, they must 

 often be very numerous, as for instance, late on the evening of the 

 17th of November 1878, on which occasion the whole expanse of 

 the sky, from the north to the south, resounded with the voices of 

 these migrants, which were proceeding at a rushing speed from 

 east to west. The eggs which, by the majority of collectors, are 

 still, and will probably continue to be, things ' longingly but vainly 

 wished for,' were first discovered by Von Middendorff in the Taimyr 

 Peninsula, in 74 N. latitude. They were afterwards taken by Mr. 

 M'Farlane, a collector of the Smithsonian Institution at Washing- 

 ton, on the shores of Arctic North America, in the summer of 1864, 

 and finally, Messrs. Harvie-Brown and Seebohrn were successful in 

 discovering the nests during an exploration in the north-east of 

 European Russia, undertaken with the object of discovering, besides 

 other rarities of the high North, the nest of this particular Plover. 

 The bird was met with in fair abundance on the Tundras of the 

 Lower Petchora in latitude 68 N. ; and these gentlemen succeeded 

 in discovering, between this point and the mouths of the river, 

 in 71 N. latitude, in all twelve nests, and in bringing home some 

 thirty eggs as well as some of the young in down. One of the 

 eggs, which I possess, and owe to the kindness of my friend 

 Seebohm, was found on fehe first day of their search, the 22nd of 

 June 1875, and counts amongst the most valued treasures of my 

 collection. In colour, markings, and shape, this specimen certainly 

 bears great resemblance to eggs of the Golden Plover ; the shell, 

 however, is somewhat less glossy than in eggs of the latter species, 

 approaching in this respect to the eggs of the Lapwing. The 

 ground-colour is a dull buff, with an inclination towards olive, 

 though this tint is less strongly developed! than in the eggs of the 

 Lapwing. The markings consist of a few small grey blotches, 

 besides other somewhat larger ones of the same colour, while 

 there are also a number of roundish spots, of a blackish-brown 

 or almost black colour, which at the thick end of the egg coalesce 

 into larger blotches. In the few cases where these spots are some- 

 what blurred, the thinner layer of colouring matter does not dis- 

 play the reddish-brown shade which one meets with much more 

 frequently in eggs of the Golden Plover : in this respect also the 

 eggs are more like that of the Lapwing, in which the colour of 

 the spots is almost invariably a pure brownish black. They 

 measure 2125 ins. (54 mm.) in length, 1*37 ins. (35 mm.) in their 

 greatest breadth, and in shape are very pointed. 



The nesting stations of this Plover extend over all the Arctic 

 countries of the Northern Hemisphere. As has been previously stated, 

 it has been met with as a breeding species from the 68th to the 74th 



