7488 Birds. 



&c., may be utihesitatingly referred. This very excusable mistake 

 has occasioned a rather acrimonious and most amusing controversy 

 in that excellent sporting newspaper ' The Field,' 

 Greenshank, Totanus glottis. 



Situation. " I once found a nest of this bird in the island of 

 Harris ; it was at a considerable distance from the water." — Mr. Mac- 

 gillivray. 



Materials. * * * " and consisted of a few fragments of heath and 

 grass, placed in a hollow cavity scraped in the turf in an exposed 

 place : the nest in fact resembled that of the golden plover, the cur- 

 lew or the lapwing." — Mr. Macgillivray. 



Eggs, 4. " The eggs, placed with their narrow ends together, were 

 four in number, pyriform, larger than those of the lapwing and smaller 

 than those of the golden plover, equally pointed with the latter, but 

 proportionally broader and more rounded at the larger end than either. 

 The dimensions of one of them were two inches exactly, by one inch 

 and three-eighths : the ground-colour is a very pale yellowish green, 

 sprinlded all over with irregular spots of dark brown, intermixed with 

 blotches of light purplish gray, the spots and especially the blotches 

 more numerous at the larger end."— Mr. Macgillivray. " The egg is 

 larger than that of the redshank by six lines in length and four in 

 breadth : it is of a pale greenish white colour, blotched and spotted 

 with ferruginous and dull red, chiefly at the larger end." — Sir Wvi. 

 Milner (Zool. 2016). Sir W. M. E. Milner states (Zool. 2230) that 

 he subsequently had three eggs sent him from the same locality, like 

 the first in size but considerably more coloured, being nearly the 

 same colour as the peewit's, but very diflerent in shape, being pyri- 

 form. " Very variable in ground-colour; some are cream-coloured." — 

 Mr. Bond. 



AvocET, Recurvirostra Avocetta. 



Situation. Col. Montagu says that this beautiful bird breeds in 

 the fens of Lincolnshire, and also in Romney Marsh : whatever may 

 have been the case formerly, it certainly does so no longer. 

 Materials. None are mentioned. 



Eggs, 2, 3. " It lays two eggs, about the size of those of a pigeon ; 

 white, tinged with green and marked with large black spots." — Col. 

 Montagu. " The nest is said to be made in a small hole in the drier 

 parts of extensive marshes : the eggs are said to be only two in num- 

 ber, of a clay-coloured brown, spotted and speckled with black, about 

 two inches in length, by one inch and a half in breadth." — Mr. 



